Community Mental Health Empowerment Model: Assumptions Underlying the Model/Review of the Literature

摘要

The Neighborhood and Family Services Project, funded by a 4 - year National Institute of Mental Health Grant, is an action research and demonstration program designed to (1) mobilize ethnic neighborhoods around mental health issues, (2) develop model programs to overcome identified obstacles to effective service delivery, and (3) develop policy initiatives for the national, State, and local levels to institutionalize project findings. The model presented is the result of 2 years of experience with the Neighborhood and Family Services Project in Baltimore, Md., and Milwaukee, Wis. Data sources consisted of 300 interviews of community leaders and helpers in each city, 250 interviews of a random sample of community residents in each city, and statistical data from a variety of official sources. Data analysis revealed the following: (1) the family is the focus of many interrelated problems for all the population groups; (2) a network of helping systems is needed to provide supports to single - parent, two - parent or elderly families; (3) the fragmentation among helpers as well as between lay and professional helpers is a major obstacle to people seeking help; and (4) community residents are not using the strengths within the community. Demonstration projects designed to meet some of these needs are briefly described for each city. Policy implications include (1) Federal and Federally - funded mental health programs should be mandated to explore linkages to the community and neighborhood helping networks, (2) Federal funds should be used to train and retrain mental health and human service workers to function within community social support systems and helping networks, and (3) a new type of funding mechanism is needed that would allow communities to determine their own needs and ways of meeting those needs.