The role of the psychologist in comprehensive community mental health centers: The National Institute of Mental Health view.

Abstract

AM very pleased to have the opportunity to join this Conference of State Chief Psychologists and Psychologists of the United States Public Health Service. Meetings such as this between state professionals and those in the Federal establishment typify our close alliance on behalf of public health, and I speak as a colleague devoted to a cause we share in common.In your strategic posts as administrators and leaders of your profession throughout the states, you have been in key positions to affect the role of the psychologist in that most significant pursuit of interest to us all-the strengthening of the mental health of our society.Today, the swift movement of events in both the fields of mental health and of social action presents all mental health professionals with fresh opportunity and equally fresh challenge. Just a few weeks ago President Johnson signed into law new mental health legislation which brings even closer to realization the community mental health services we have tried for many years to make available to all our citizens.Under this new amendment to the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963, Federal aid will help pay the cost of staff as the centers get underway. This support, coupled with the Federal assistance for construction, means that the mental health professions can and must devise within the community mental health center model ways for the most effective practice of their respective disciplines.It was the Roman General Fabius who said of his famous adversary, Hannibal, "You know, Hannibal, how to gain a victory, but not how to use it." If the mental health of this nation has gained a victory in the current move toward community care and prevention of the mental illnesses, we are now called upon to use the skills and knowledge of

Liberation psychology and pragmatic solidarity: North–South collaborations through the Ignacio Martín-Baró fund.

“…This role has been scrutinized by psychologists themselves, who “see a basic incongruity between the roles of helping relationships, which involve them as expert and their clients as dependent, and the goal of those relationships, which is to foster the client’s independence” (Tyler, Pargament, & Gatz, 1983, p. 388). In a role similar to that of counseling psychologists, a community mental health practitioner participates in treatment and therapy with patients, but also works with community agencies and social action programs (Yolles, 1966). They also assess the well-being of community members, and facilitate community goal-setting and assist in accessing programs and policies to achieve them (Biglan & Smolkowski, 2002).…”

Social disability.

“…The mental health and community psychology professions are attempting to come to grips with this problem. In the process, there appears to be a proliferation of models guiding training in and study and treatment of debilitation and decompensation (see Dunham, 1965;Pasamanick, 1967;Rieff, 1971;Yolles, 1966). For this reason, there needs to be a reminder that there is a common conceptual base to the human problems with which community mental health disciplines are concerned.…”

The process of mental health consultation: A systematic look within the context of community psychology.

“…As defined by the Boston Conference (1966), community psychology is devoted to the study of general psychological processes that link social systems with individual behavior in complex interactions. Within this framework one of the goals of the mental health intervention is based on the theory of social competence (Yolles 1966). In the process of consultation the aim is to help people become more competent within their society, withstand its stresses and realize their fullest potential while in turn affecting some of the social systems.…”