Emergency Psychiatric Ambulance Services in the USSR
E. FULLER TORREY M.D.1
1 Special Assistant to the Director for International Activities, Office of International Activities, National Institute of Mental Health, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20852
In 1965 psychiatrists in the Soviet Union began an experiment in emergency psychiatric ambulance services. This system has the following advantages: Immediate treatment is provided; physicians rather than police bring patients to the hospital; information can be gathered from "significant others" at the crisis scene; and feldshers (medical workers) assist psychiatrists. The author raises several questions about the provision of emergency psychiatric services in the United States and concludes that we have much to learn from psychiatrists abroad.
