Psychiatry's human resources: 20 years later

Abstract

The author compares the findings he made about the shortage of psychiatrists 20 years ago for the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health with the recent findings of the President's Commission on Mental Health. He concludes that not much has changed except for an increased awareness today of the need for services for minorities, and heightened concern over the low numbers of minorities in professional positions and training programs. The shortage of psychiatrists to work with poor people, children and adolescents, the aged, the organically impaired, and the physically handicapped continues, and it is unlikely to be overcome because of the drop in the number of American medical school graduates entering psychiatric training and the federal law restricting the number of foreign medical graduates entering the United States. He believes primary prevention is the best way to ease the widening gap between the need for services and the available psychiatric resources.