The role of the community mental health center in prevention of infant, child and adolescent disorders: retrospect and prospect.

The Congressional Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children 1965-67 gathered and published a great deal of data on Prevention and Early Intervention that was subsequently ignored by Congress and the Administration. Community Mental Health Centers, since their beginnings in the mid 60's, have not been able to concern themselves with prevention because of the overwhelming demands for treatment of a very psychiatrically disturbed adult population. The closing of State Hospitals without provision for community resources to care for these severely disturbed individuals, for economic and political reasons, unfairly burdened community mental health centers. In the intervening years, a great deal more has been learned about primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention for infants, children and adolescents. This paper describes some of the new knowledge and indicates how much of our current knowledge could be used by Community Mental Health Centers to take advantage of the new funding available in many prevention areas. A few early intervention and prevention projects are described.