Psychosocial problems among patients in neighborhood health centers: perspectives from health care providers.

Little is known about how health care professionals perceive and understand the psychosocial problems of individuals receiving services in neighborhood health centers (NHCs). We conducted interviews with health care professionals in NHCs in New York City. The respondents identified seven problems, including a lack of financial resources, unsafe housing, and emotional distress/depression as affecting large portions of their patient populations. Respondents reported that they are presently meeting many of the psychosocial needs of their clients, but they were pessimistic about their ability to continue to do so due to a lack of funding streams to support their provision of comprehensive health care that includes psychosocial services. The findings suggest that while NHCs may be "holding their own" in providing quality services to their clients, this will be harder to sustain in the future if the numbers of the uninsured served continues to increase, and the revenues generated continue to decrease.