Abstract
Future planning and development of psychiatric services in Ontario is based on the concept of community psychiatric centres. The implementation of this program will require:
1) the utilization of general hospitals and mental hospitals to provide a more complete and comprehensive system of community psychiatric services;
2) increasing concern with the standards of care in psychiatric facilities across the Province;
3) continued and increasing involvement of local agencies and services in the community mental health effort;
4) the identification of priorities of need that will assure most effective utilization of the available professional staff.
It is to be expected that efforts made to consolidate our gains, will bring issues such as these into sharper focus. As the administrative responsibility for clinical services is shifted from a central to a local authority, psychiatrists will look to their professional association more and more to represent their interests. It is to be hoped that those identified with Government will continue to respect the interest and concern of the organized profession with these problems, which must be resolved in order to further advance the practice of psychiatry in this Province.