Mental health providers confronting organizational change: process, problems, and strategies.

Under the influence of managed care and diminished funding, the mental health field is undergoing a major transformation. Existing mental health programs, departments, and agencies are downsizing and restructuring to develop new types of service delivery systems. Organizations must change to survive; yet necessary and adaptive change may be resisted in numerous ways by providers whose reactions and behaviors may reduce the viability of their own programs and agencies. This paper explores various characteristics and reactions of mental health care professionals as they face great stress, professional devaluation, and necessary organizational change and restructuring. Adaptive and maladaptive patterns in response to potential organizational change are explored. The role of the leader in guiding and implementing programmatic changes and in dealing with denial and resistance is highlighted. Strategies to enhance the prospects for adaptive organizational change are offered.