The mental health clinic: a new model.
The role of psychiatrists into public mental health clinics has been hampered by a perceived restriction of the psychiatrist's role to prescribing and sign-ing forms, limiting opportunities to engage in the kind of integrated care that attracted many physicians to this specialty. We propose a revision of the current model in a direction that maximizes the expertise of this specialist as well as other clinicians in the health care team. The basic unit would consist of a psychiatrist (with adequate background both in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy), an internist and four clinical psychotherapists, who may provide evidence-based treatment after the initial evaluation of the psychiatrist. Its functioning would emphasize repeated assessments, sequential combination of treatments, and close coordination of team members. Re-invigorating the role of the psychiatrist in the context of a team in which role assignments are clear could result in better outcomes and enhanced recruitment of psychiatrists into the public sector.
Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York at Buffalo, 462 Grider Street, Buffalo, NY 14215, USA.
Giovanni A
GA
Fava
Seugn K
SK
Park
Steven L
SL
Dubovsky