Problems of communication in the field of community psychiatry

Abstract

Various papers dealing with a wide array of problems in the field of community psychiatry express concern about communicative and behavioral inadequacies of the members of the mental health team. These considerations and the observation of communicative problems in the mental-hospital-based psychiatric community services in Selkirk, Manitoba, set the stage for their paper. The lack of effectual communication and of appropriate behavior are held responsible for the persistence of many difficulties in the field of community psychiatry. The particular.problems encountered in the Selkirk Community Psychiatric Service are identified and remedial steps are described. Conjoint planning between the mental hospital and the community for the establishment of a medico-psychiatric center bears witness of an improved relationship. * Dr. Kreyes is a lecturer,

The university and community mental health: A new trend?

“…The result is a highly competitive, essentially suspicious atmosphere in which each professional group jockeys, negotiates, and bargains for dominance. A coordinated division of labor becomes problemmatic and communications episodic (Kreyes, 1971). Instead of a tight, lock-step, tandem operation between and among the psychiatric and quasi-psychiatric groupings, there almost is internecine warfare.…”