title: Symbolism of community I: the boundary between hospital and community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the symbolism of community as understood and practised in a mental health Crisis and Assessment Service in an Australian city.
  The paper draws on anthropological theories of symbolism and boundary work.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnographic fieldwork techniques were employed for data collection. Ethnographic analysis was then applied to these data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In mental health practice, community is primarily defined in contradistinction to hospital. Narratives about community, including an orthodox version and a sceptical counter-narrative, revolve around this community-hospital boundary.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis identifies a key symbol, which we have designated community, and enumerates the social values that comprise it.
authors.affiliation: University of Adelaide, Department of Psychiatry ant the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia. robert.barrett@adelaide.edu.au
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Damon B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D000883:Anthropology; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013561:Symbolism