The Uninsulated Caseload in a Neighborhood Mental Health Center
JULES M. KLUGER M.D.1
1 Director, mental health section, Westside Neighborhood Health Center, 990 Federal Blvd., Denver, Colo. 80204
The author describes a program at the opposite pole of the traditional psychiatric clinic in that it renders service to all applicants, and without delay. He observes that immediate service is more important to patients from the lower social classes than is a continuing therapist-patient relationship and also questions the existence of the "language barrier" between middle-class therapist and lower-class patient. Handling a large caseload has resulted in the clinic's adopting modes of operation that have turned out to be more successful than those the clinics leaders would have chosen.
