An apparent “zone of invisibility” in community mental health programs

✍ Scribed by Edwin S. Zolik; Joseph R. Marches

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1966
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 414 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4679(196604)22:2<239::aid-jclp2270220240>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

PROBLEM

Surveys often focus on treated prevalence-individuals in treatment with psychiatrists and psychologists a t the time of the survey-thereby overlooking diagnosed but untreated, or diagnosed cases being treated or served by other community agencies. These two groups comprise an important patient segment and need to be included in any evaluation of the dimensions of mental health problems in a community.

As one part of a comprehensive analysis of community mental health needs('), attention was directed a t all cases with diagnosed disorders whose treatment lies primarily in the purview of community agencies. Specific guiding questions were :

(1) How are persons with functional non-psychotic psychiatric diagnoses distributed by age? (2) At what age periods do the frequencies show significant upward or downward changes? (3) What are the factors which relate to marked changes in the indicated frequencies? *The authors thank the directors and staffs of the mental health, public health, welfare, and social agencies in Northern Virginia and Washington, D. C. for their assistance in making possible the survey on which this study is based.