Inspiring a Welcoming, Hopeful Culture

Abstract

Community psychiatry has a unique vision, which sets it apart from other behavioral health “disciplines.” Community psychiatry provides a safety net service for a “community”—for a defined population that may need help with behavioral health issues of all kinds. This responsibility extends not just to the “easy” customers, the ones who neatly fit into our existing service packages, but particularly to “complicated” customers, the ones who may not fit at all and yet are desperate for help and hope.

These values—a vision of hope and help for those most in need, that no one else will serve—are what gives community psychiatry its true heart. Yet, the implementation of this set of values, the articulation of this vision, in community psychiatric practice, programs, and settings is not a trivial matter. This chapter illustrates how to implement processes that provide deliberate attention, at every level of organization structure, process, program, and practice, to ensure that those most in need, that those most likely to be “misfits” in other settings, are not only tolerated and “accepted,” but specifically and proactively welcomed for care—and inspired with the hope and promise of recovery—wherever, whenever, and however they present.