A VISIT TO THE ARGENTINE
JOSEPH WORTIS M.D.1
1 The Dept. of Psychiatry, State University of New York Downstate Medical College, and the Division of Pediatric Psychiatry, Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn.
Argentina has its fair share of talented and public spirited psychiatrists, but their professional development and usefulness are hampered by inadequate support and facilities. The opinion was frequently expressed, even by Government officials, that general planning for medical services on a national level is long overdue, and will have to be initiated. Even the 1200 pesos per year per capita that are now being spent by the public could yield far better health services, including psychiatric services, if expended in some planned and rational way. Until that is done, there seems to be little prospect of providing adequate psychiatric care to meet the needs of the Argentine population. Meanwhile it is to be hoped that some of the most urgent and immediate needs will be satisfied.
A question I often asked was how we in the U. S. A. could be helpful. Many younger physicians expressed the wish to spend a period of training in the U. S. A., but it is my impression that in the past many or most of the American-trained physicians have returned to give their major interest to private practice and have neglected hospital work. "How else could we earn a livehood?" they ask. It seems to me American training resources could be used much more effectively if our responsible agencies negotiated with Argentine agencies to exchange personnel, or perhaps teams of personnel, with some assurance that these would help satisfy some of the broader psychiatric needs of that country. Now especially, when there is emerging in the Argentine a new interest in the development of psychiatric services in general hospitals, perhaps ways could be found to train some of their younger men to prepare for full time career positions in general hospitals, in research or in psychiatric public health work. I think brief sojourns of visiting teams from our country would not only be well received and would help to train many young psychiatrists, but would provide useful opportunities for some of our psychiatrists to get the stimulus of new contacts, problems and ideas, and to cultivate an interest in the growing psychiatric work of our South American neighbors. Joint conferences or group training seminars could also provide very fruitful results at relatively little cost. I am sure that programs of this type would help to revive those good neighborly feelings which have not flourished in recent years.
