Medical Services
Family practice (general practice) centers in communities are commonly the first line for assessment of mental health conditions, and may prescribe psychiatric drugs and sometimes provide basic counseling or therapy for "common mental disorders". Secondary medical services may include psychiatric hospitals, although since deinstitutionalization these have been restricted in favor of wards within general hospitals, and community mental health services based more locally.
Such services may be provided on an inpatient or, more commonly, outpatient basis. They may offer a range of treatments, usually centered around psychiatric drugs, and be provided by a range of mental health professionals, notably psychiatrists and psychiatric and mental health nurses. Non-medical professionals may also be involved, such as clinical psychologists, social workers and various kinds of therapists or counselors. Usually headed by psychiatrists and therefore based on a medical model, multidisiplinary teams may be involved in assertive community treatment and early intervention, and may be coordinated via a case management system (sometimes referred to as "service coordination").
Read more about this topic: Services For Mental Disorders
Famous quotes containing the words medical and/or services:
“If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“We now in the United States have more security guards for the rich than we have police services for the poor districts. If you’re looking for personal security, far better to move to the suburbs than to pay taxes in New York.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)