Modern Community Mental Health

This is the first truly interdisciplinary book that examines how professionals work together within community mental health. It takes into account the key concepts of community mental health and combines them with current technology to develop an effective formula that redefines the community mental health practice.

This book deals with the provision of psychiatric services to populations, a task which requires an integrated system of service components. Generally the target population comprises the residents of a specific geographic area, but it may be a special population, such as homeless people or people with AIDS. Community psychiatry does not deal only with the interaction between a patient and a doctor, but with the system of services and interactions that is needed to treat a variety of patients and to provide long-term care, support, and rehabilitation for patients with chronic disorders. Modern community psychiatry is pragmatic rather than doctrinaire; it measures its success in cost-effectiveness rather than by its faithfulness to any particular theoretical model. It stresses interdisciplinary teamwork and the involvement of consumers. These lessons, learned by community psychiatrists working in the public sector over several decades, are now being increasingly applied in the private sector as better organized, managed systems of care are evolving. This book describes the history of public mental health services and the underpinnings of modern community psychiatry in epidemiology, mental health services research, and administration. It then describes the methods and strategies used to provide the range of services that constitute a comprehensive mental health program. The authors discuss the public health principles that underlie community approaches and present the methods used within the several components of a comprehensive service system to address the needs of specific populations, stressing interdisciplinary teamwork and coordination within an integrated service network.

Community mental health care has evolved as a discipline over the past 50 years, and within the past 20 years, there have been major developments across the world. The Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health is the most comprehensive and authoritative review published in the field, written by an international and interdisciplinary team.

-Child and elder abuse.

The distinguished historian of medicine Gerald Grob analyzes the post-World War II policy shift that moved many severely mentally ill patients from large state hospitals to nursing homes, families, and subsidized hotel rooms--and also, most disastrously, to the streets. On the eve of the war, public mental hospitals were the chief element in the American mental health system. Responsible for providing both treatment and care and supported by major portions of state budgets, they employed more than two-thirds of the members of the American Psychiatric Association and cared for nearly 98 percent of all institutionalized patients. This study shows how the consensus for such a program vanished, creating social problems that tragically intensified the sometimes unavoidable devastation of mental illness. Examining changes in mental health care between 1940 and 1970, Grob shows that community psychiatric and psychological services grew rapidly, while new treatments enabled many patients to lead normal lives. Acute services for the severely ill were expanded, and public hospitals, relieved of caring for large numbers of chronic or aged patients, developed into more active treatment centers. But since the main goal of the new policies was to serve a broad population, many of the most seriously ill were set adrift without even the basic necessities of life. By revealing the sources of the euphemistically designated policy of "community care," Grob points to sorely needed alternatives. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The newest edition of Community Mental Health continues to be at the leading edge of the field, providing the most up-to-date research and treatment models that encompass practice in community settings. Experts from a wide range of fields explore the major trends, best practices, and policy issues shaping community mental health services today. New sections address the role of spirituality, veterans and the military, family treatment, and emerging new movements. An expanded view of recovery ensures that a thorough conversation about intersectionality and identity runs throughout the book.