The Role of the Psychiatrist and His Helpers
ROBERT W. GIBSON M.D.1
1 Medical Director, Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, Towson, Md. 21204
Medicare presents both opportunity and challenge to the mental health professions. It will help eliminate the traditional discrimination against the psychiatric patient in health insurance and federal legislation and remove financial and other barriers to psychiatric care for the elderly. Yet existing facilities are inadequate to satisfy newly created demands for service, and less than half of these facilities measure up to established standards of accreditation. The psychiatric profession must integrate these new opportunities and challenges in the provision of quality care for all.
