INTRODUCING COMMUNITY-BASED CARE OF THE CHRONICALLY ILL INTO RESIDENCY EDUCATION

Few departments have the resources to support an ideal program in comm unity psychiatry. In this article, the authors discuss the difficultie s and benefits of introducing long-term community-based treatment of t he chronically mentally ill into it residency program with limited res ources of time and personnel. The residents initially were fearful of the program and tended to avoid its unique community aspects. The auth ors describe how they dealt with these problems and how the program ev olved into a well-accepted part of the residency over its first 4 year s of operation. The authors conclude that, even on a time budget of 4 to 6 hours weekly, residents can have a meaningful learning experience in community-based care of the chronically mentally ill.