A report on the project on community resources in mental health.

Abstract

THIS PROJECT was one of ten undertaken by the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health in a national survey authorized by Congress in the Mental Health Study Act of 1955. The charge given the project was to gain knowledge and understanding of resources in support of mental health so that their contribution the nation's mental health may be facilitated and increased. We took quite seriously the presence of the word community in the statement of our assignment. From the outset, our focus of interest was on communities in which people live and the mental health resources offered in support of mental health. We took into account the fact that problems and services found in local communities often reflect state and national trends, interest, and support, but our emphasis throughout the inquiry was on the local and its resources. Our basic objective was acquire an understanding of the whole pattern of resources in any given setting, the interrelationships and division of function among them, and the effect of their combined efforts in behalf of mental health. We decided give consideration both resources for the promotion of the mental health of the general population and those helpful people with behavior or emotional problems. Thus we included the mental health role of recreation, youth programs, public health and public assistance programs, and made reference education and religion. We also covered the services devoted more specifically people with behavior and emotional problems, such as child welfare services, probation services in the courts, family counseling, special services in the schools, certain law enforcement agencies, and the relationship of all these psychiatric services. We set up two major study operations as follows: A. A Study of the Supply of Community Resources We undertook a quantitative study of the supply of certain resources in each of the 3,103 counties in continental United States. We considered such data be basic a discussion of the present and potential role of resources in behalf of mental health. What is the supply of such resources in counties throughout the country? Where are they found in good supply and where are there shortages, if any? B. Field Studies To complement