The changing role of psychiatrists in community mental health centers

The community mental health center (CMHC) movement, largely conceived by psychiatrists to improve standards of mental health care nationally, appears to be going through an evolutionary phase in which there is decreasing utilization of psychiatrists and increasing utilization of other mental health professionals. The author discusses some factors that may have influenced this trend. In order to counter it CMHCs must become a recognized, essential, and respectable part of a pluralistic system of mental health care, and psychiatrists must be willing to assume their responsibility for involvement in all segments of mental health care, including the private and public sectors, in both leadership and clinical positions.