The community mental health center (CMHC) movement, largely conceived by
psychiatrists to improve standards of mental health care nationally,
appears to be going through an evolutionary phase in which there is
decreasing utilization of psychiatrists and increasing utilization of other
mental health professionals. The author discusses some factors that may
have influenced this trend. In order to counter it CMHCs must become a
recognized, essential, and respectable part of a pluralistic system of
mental health care, and psychiatrists must be willing to assume their
responsibility for involvement in all segments of mental health care,
including the private and public sectors, in both leadership and clinical
positions.Abstract Teaser