Community Psychiatry: Past, Present, and Future

This final chapter examines the history of community psychiatry from several different perspectives: culture, financing, demographics, political, scientific, and professional identity. It then develops a vision for the ideal future on the discipline, also from various perspectives: clinical care, systems of care, public health, and public policy, with an emphasis on social justice. It then uses a modified SWOT analysis of the mental health environment to consider how the field might evolve. Using this analysis, it finally lays out strategies that can lead to successful outcomes with regard to the vision it developed. Strategies to be employed on an individual level, local systems level, and larger systems level are considered.