Manual For The Comprehensive Community Mental Health Clinic

During the past decade or more, there has been a rapid evolution of mental health services and treatment technologies, shifting psychiatric epidemiology, changes in public behavioral health policy and increased understanding in medicine regarding approaches to clinical work that focus on patient-centeredness. These contemporary issues need to be articulated in a comprehensive format. The American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP), a professional organization internationally recognized as holding the greatest concentration of expertise in the field, has launched a methodical process to create a competency certification in community psychiatry. As a reference for a certification examination, that effort will benefit enormously from a comprehensive handbook on the subject.

Today's rapidly changing mental health care environment has created both complex challenges and unique opportunities for the community psychiatrist. Practicing Psychiatry in the Community: A Manual is an indispensable resource for practitioners and psychiatric residents. Clinically active psychiatrists will find this manual invaluable as they adopt new roles in this dynamic and exciting field. This comprehensive work by leading experts in the field addresses the major issues currently facing community psychiatrists. It even includes a user-friendly guide to the development of a research program in a community setting. Organized into three main sections, this manual provides essential information on treatment settings, target populations, and special topics in the community psychiatry domain. The Treatment Continuum explores the varied environments in which community psychiatric services may be offered, including outpatient treatment, crisis resolution services, and psychiatric rehabilitation programs. Populations such as mentally disordered children, adolescents, and the elderly; HIV-infected patients; the homeless mentally ill; the developmentally disabled; chemically dependent patients; dually diagnosed patients; violent patients; and the chronically mentally ill have unique needs requiring skilled clinical care. The Target Populations section provides the community psychiatrist with useful and practical guidelines for the treatment of each of these patient groups. The Special Topics section ushers the community psychiatrist into the era of contemporary community psychiatric practice with vital information on emerging issues like cultural diversity, the principles of effective collaboration with advocacy and family/self-help groups, the role of the multidisciplinary team, and legal and training issues.

Practical tools for putting people at the center of mental health care Person-centered mental health care is essential for keeping service users at the center of care. This handbook uses practical examples across health care, research, education, and leadership to illustrate how to implement person-centered approaches for and with the growing population of service users who have mental health challenges. Looking at the different service user encounters enables service providers to envision the effective, comprehensive implementation of person-centered care. Each chapter follows a concrete example exploring different techniques, tools, and resources that can be used with service users who have mental health challenges. An appendix provides the handouts in online, printable form. Written by experts in person-centered care who have diverse experiences with mental health-related practices, policies, research, and education, this comprehensive handbook is a valuable resource for psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners,researchers, educators, and policy makers who work with people who have mental health challenges as well as for service users and their families.