Young Psychiatrist Administrators
E. MANSELL PATTISON M.D.1
1 Associate Professor and Vice-Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, and Deputy Director of Training, Orange County Department of Mental Health, 2215 North Broadway, Santa Ana, Calif. 92706
Administrative issues posed in public community organizations are significantly different from those encountered in mental hospitals and university administrative systems. Thus the development of community mental health delivery systems has created new roles for psychiatric administrators. A survey analysis often young psychiatrist administrators, conducted to assay attitudes and experiences encountered in community mental health administration, revealed that the emergent role of the clinician-executive poses significant problems in the synthesis of role functions and identity. There is a disjunction between professional acculturation and this emergent administrative role.
