Overview

The aim of this text is to provide mental health professionals, both those in the field and those in training, a better understanding of the service delivery system and ideas for how to work effectively in it.   It examines various driving forces–deinstitutionalization, empirically based practices, managed care–-both in the evolution of the present community mental health care system,  as well as the impact on the overall system today.    The text begins with an overview of the Community mental health field, including the impact of deinstitutionalization on it.  Next, it provides a description of the ecological model and the prevention paradigm, both conceptualizations needed to navigate through the system.  Individual-oriented tools include stress management and brief therapeutic techniques. Systems-oriented tools include  consultation strategies, community research methods and change techniques.   These techniques provide the professional with effective tools to produce large-scale reform.   The values that community mental health professionals must consider include cultural responsiveness, empowerment, and the ethical concerns unique to helping agency-affiliated individuals in the community.  The book concludes by exploring a vision of the future of the system: a description of the needs of the elderly, the fastest growing segment of our population.  Also covered are programs designed to help this population and dramatic changes expected in the types of mental health interventions that corporate employers and their insurance companies will support. 

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Author Information

Elizabeth L. Teed, MaristCollege John A. Scileppi, MaristCollege Monika Boeckmann, Alzheimer’s Association Esther L. Crispi, MaristCollege James Regan, MaristCollege David J. Whitehouse, United Behavioral Health   We are a community of professionals and scholars, assembled to provide diverse and practical viewpoints on navigating the community mental health system.  The authors of the book include (in alphabetical order), Monika Boeckmann, M.A., M.S., M.P.A., currently the Executive Director of a regional agency serving the victims of Alzheimer’s Disease and their families and a former senior administrator of the Dutchess County United Way and a former Director of Staff Training for two Veteran’s Administration Health Centers; Ester (Lori) Crispi, Ph.D., a gerontologist, grant project administrator and faculty member; James Regan, Ph.D., former C.E.O. of Hudson River State (NY) Psychiatric Center and current Director of a graduate training program in a community mental health field; John Scileppi, Ph.D., a member of numerous boards of directors of agencies assisting individuals with developmental disabilities, author and a faculty member; Elizabeth Teed, Ph.D., former Director of the Office of Community Research, therapist, member of the Dutchess County Mental Health Association Board of Directors and faculty member; and David Whitehouse, M.D., Th.D., M.B.A., Chief Medical Officer for Strategy and Innovation United Behavioral Health, and former head of the Charles River (MA) Psychiatric Center, a private institution participating in Massachusetts’ privatization of services program.  While the professors are expert in theory, the practitioners and administrators have a wealth of practical experience from which to draw upon when describing the community mental health system.   We all agree on basic philosophy and orientation; however the reader may find occasions when two of us may support opposing viewpoints.  Let these instances themselves be good training for navigating the community mental health system.  We assure you, it will not be the last time you encounter contradictory recommendations given by various stakeholders in the system!

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