Neighborhood Health Centers as Providers of Primary Mental-Health Care

Abstract

The 19 Boston neighborhood health centers with mental-health programs were studied to investigate the delivery of mental-health services as part of a primary health-care system. Staff-time utilization data show these programs focus on the provision of primary mental-health services to neighborhood residents and indirect consultative and collaborative services to general health staff to co-ordinate health care. Forty-eight per cent of referrals for mental-health services were patients first identified and referred by general health staff. Children constituted a disproportionately high percentage of the patients served (43 per cent), and 22 per cent of the services were outreach visits, primarily in patients' homes. Quantitative studies are necessary to confirm my qualititative findings that the conjoint health and mental-health delivery site at the neighborhood level increases the accessibility and psychologic acceptability of mental-health services and enhances case finding, successful referral, and co-ordination of primary health care.