Social and Community Psychiatry
PETER SAINSBURY M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.M.1
1 Medical research council, clinical psychiatry research unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex, England
The National Health Service was established at a time when psychiatry as a specialty was undergoing a period of rapid development and change. This coincidence, the author feels, has helped to determine not only the type of psychiatry practiced and the kinds of services established in Britain but the theoretical development of the field as well. He examines some of these effects in detail and concludes by describing a recent project to evaluate the social effects of a community psychiatric service.
