MERGING CULTURES - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PUBLIC ACADEMIC LIAISON

Collaboration between academia and public mental health service progra ms is hindered by conflicts between the cultures supporting each secto r. Successful collaboration depends, in part, on understanding and res olving these inherent cultural conflicts. Priorities, values, processe s and the focus of results underlying the different cultures are discu ssed. Approaches to merging these cultures as an aid to collaboration are explored.