ACCESS TO THE EMERGENCY PSYCHIATRY SYSTEM IN JAPAN

Although the need for an emergency psychiatry system is increasing in Japan because of a shift to providing psychiatric care from hospitaliz ation to community-based services, little attention is being given to what the general population expects from the health care system. To as certain the expectations of the general population about how emergency psychiatric cases should be handled, the authors distributed a questi onnaire to 1000 people containing 12 characteristic psychiatric emerge ncy cases. The results showed that most expected psychiatric care to b e rendered in a general hospital. This was different from the opinion held by most mental health professionals who felt that mental health h ospitals should be the core hospitals of emergency psychiatry. Althoug h there was a higher expectation for police officers or paramedics to provide emergent psychiatric care, the general population expected les s from public health centers which now provide mental health service i n the community. To connect emergency psychiatry with the community th e general hospital must play a larger role in the system through train ing programs for general hospital psychiatrists as well as nonpsychiat rist professionals, paramedics, and police officers. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science, Inc.