The Community Mental Health Center in the Rural Area: Is the Present Model Appropriate?
DAVID N. DANIELS M.D.1
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif. 94305
The community mental health center model with its varied direct clinical services becomes a white elephant when applied to rural states and areas. The model does not fulfill the mental health needs of the people—of meeting them where they live and serving them through the utilization of available personnel and resources. An alternative, indirect services model, which emphasizes consultation, education, preventive psychiatry, and community psychiatry as community organization, is proposed and explored.
