Community mental health: The search for identity

In drawing up a balance sheet of the performance and potential of the community mental health center movement from the admittedly constructed perspective which six years of operation on 'a national scale bestows upon us, even the most vociferous critics of the center program agree that it has brought psychiatric care to hundreds of thousands of our citizens who were never reached before. The affirmation of the dignity of the individual suffering from an emotional disturbance is the most positive contribution of the community mental health center movement. However, on the negative side of the ledger, there are quite a few obstacles to the fulfillment of the potential of the center movement. The major difficulty at this time is the uncertain financial support for these centers. The uncertain support from the federal government, in addition to understandable financial difficulties at the local level, make it very difficult for many centers to acquire and hold the staff necessary to meet the many demands upon their services. As a consequence, it is the considered belief of many of us who have been associated with this program since its inception that the community mental health center will achieve neither stability nor its true potential until we devise a universal system of prepaid medical care in this country.This paper was originally given at the Inaugural Plenary Session, World Mental Health Assembly in Washington, D.C., November, 1969.