The Psychologist Connection: Service Linkage and Role Definition.

A Survey of Mental Health Systems and Services

“…There is a brief discussion of this problem in WHO (1971). Baskin and Simari (1980) have noted that because centralized referral agencies do not exist throughout our country, individuals may have great difficulty locating a mental health professional. Moreover, medical professionals may be reluctant to refer individuals either because of the potential loss of revenue or because the mental health practitioners have failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of their treatment.…”

“…Are children, adolescents and the elderly made aware of the signs and symptoms of mental illness? Are members of each community encouraged to have yearly check-ups for mental health, the way they are for physical health, as suggested by Baskin and Simari (1980)? Despite the fact that most countries collect information on mental illness and use standardized procedures for psychiatric diagnostic classification, most of the respondents do not tabulate and publicize their findings.…”