Connect
MJA
MJA

Why are community psychiatric services in Australia doing it so hard?

James D Hundertmark
Med J Aust 2008; 188 (8): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01736.x
Published online: 21 April 2008

To the Editor: Singh and Castle recently commented on the assumptions made in relation to the National Mental Health Policy.1 One such assumption was that the cost of the community care service model could be constrained by limiting services to the “severely” mentally ill. The authors went on to describe the realities associated with making this and other assumptions on current mental health care delivery.


  • Southern Mental Health, Adelaide, SA.



  • 1. Singh BS, Castle DJ. Why are community psychiatry services in Australia doing it so hard? Med J Aust 2007; 187: 410-412. <MJA full text>
  • 2. Wigney T, Parker G. Medical student observations on a career in psychiatry. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2007; 41: 726-731.
  • 3. Andrews G, Henderson S, Hall W. Prevalence, comorbidity, disability and service utilisation. Overview of the Australian National Mental Health Survey. Br J Psychiatry 2001; 178: 145-153.
  • 4. Lau T, Kumar S, Robinson E. New Zealand’s psychiatrist workforce: profile, recruitment and retention. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2004; 38: 547–553.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.