title: [Public sector psychiatry in Martinique in 1996: handicaps and hopes].
abstract: In the light of political, economic and cultural factors the authors give a historical overview of psychiatric practice in the public sector in Martinique (French West Indies) which was for a long time concentrated at the Colson Specialized Medical Center. The evolution of mental health problems is described in parallel with socio-economic changes. Broad opportunities for daily application of psychiatric practice in problematic social situations call forth the notion of "extended psychiatry". A number of changes are now shaping with the creation of diversified decentralized facilities, e.g. in penitentiaries and in some local hospitals. Other projects now being discussed are less certain and there is a risk of a two-speed system between the Specialized Hospital Center and the Regional University Hospital Center. Their authors place hopes in a project covering the whole island in which public sector psychiatry would represent a metacultural model going beyond ideologic handicaps and opening the way to new solidarity.
authors.affiliation: Secteur de Psychiatrie Générale sud-Caraïbe, Centre Hospitalier Spécialisé Colson, Fort-de-France, Martinique.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dauga
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guinard
mesh_terms: D003158:Community Psychiatry / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006801:Humans; D008395:Martinique; D008603:Mental Health; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011635:Public Health Administration; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors