Mental health care of black clients in two types of healthcare organizations.

This article compares the characteristics of black clients and their mental health treatment in two types of treatment facilities: an outpatient clinic of a community mental health center and a comprehensive medical facility. The comprehensive medical facility provides short-term case management to the less severely ill, while the community mental health center provides longer-term, individual psychotherapy and medications to those with more serious diagnoses. Given these findings and the current shift from traditional health insurance to prepaid healthcare, the evolving role of the community mental health center is discussed.