A COMMUNITY-BASED PUBLIC-ACADEMIC LIAISON PROGRAM

Objective: The authors discuss obstacles a;ad incentives associated wi th successful community-based public-academic liaison activities a nd illustrate their conclusions by describing their public-academic liais on program, which received the American College of Psychiatrists' firs t annual Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education. Method: The fi rst 8 years of a state/university collaboration are described in which the parties involved first developed a variety of innovative services designed to fill specific gaps in the public service delivery system and subsequently integrated academic research and training components. Results: The carefully planned and monitored process resulted in the exponential growth of interest in public sector work, the realization of the university's primary goals of developing high quality training and research sites, a substantial increase in the number of graduates accepting positions in the public sector, several projects funded by t he National Institute of Mental Health, and two national awards. Concl usions: These collaborations illustrate the highly complementary relat ionship of public-academic liaison activities and their potential capa city to improve access to services, substantially improve the quality of these services, generate extramural support for services research, and increase the number of well-trained professionals in the public se ctor.