The Development of a Service-Oriented Psychiatric Program in a Disadvantaged Area

The authors undertook to establish a small, service-oriented psychiatric program in a disadvantaged minority community. Thefr experience in independently negotiating this psychiatric program with community leaders is described, and the resistances encountered both from the community and from professional colleagues are elaborated. It is the authors' view that individual psychiatrists, with minimal financial or organizational backing, may contribute significantly to mental health care in a poverty area as well as open channels of communication between middle-class and poverty communities, although this requires some departure from their traditional role.