Self-referrals to a community psychiatric clinic

Abstract

Over recent years a number of non-hospital based services have been developed that can be subsumed under the title of Community Mental Health Centres (CMHCs). Conferences held by the King's Fund (McAusland, 1985) and the National Unit for psychiatric Research and Development (Sayce, 1987) have highlighted the importance of CMHC-like services in health authorities' plans to develop community based psychiatric services. There is no single view of CMHCs in the United Kingdom and, while many such centres already exist, they are diverse in nature and their activities have been sparsely documented.