The Health Careers Institute: A Mental Health Strategy for an Urban Community
HARRIS B. PECK M.D.1,
TOM LEVIN PH.D.2, , and
MELVIN ROMAN PH.D.3
1 Associate professor of psychiatry and director, Lincoln Hospital Mental Health Services, 333 Southern Blvd., Bronx, N. Y. 10454, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N. Y.
2 Assistant professor of psychiatry and project director, Health Careers Program, Lincoln Hospital-Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N. Y.
3 Associate professor of psychiatry and associate director, Lincoln Hospital Mental Health Services, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N. Y.
The authors describe their experience operating a health careers program in a disadvantaged urban area. They feel that this type of mental health service is ideal for such a setting. The health careers strategy is designed to: 1) provide the manpower for its program; 2) develop personnel so as to establish more effective collaboration with allied health programs; 3) effect psychosocial change in residents of the community exposed to the program; and 4) make an effective contribution to aspects of the community's development that are closely related to the mental health of its citizens.
