Community Psychiatry is sometimes regarded as a separate and even as a recent study. The history of its evolution in Australia shows it to have resulted from a logical progression since the earliest days of the psychiatric services. The demand for care completely outstripped the accommodation available so two separate but parallel methods of dealing with this problem were evolved. The first explored how the numbers in the overcrowded hospitals could be reduced, and the second, the ways in which admission could be avoided. Both methods resulted in the expansion of community services. Present day activities must be viewed in this light and community services recognised to be an indivisible portion of a professionally organised total mental health organisation.
References
1.
DaxEC. The first 200 years of Australian psychiatry. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1989; 23: 103–110.
2.
Statistics of the colony of Victoria. 1868; Part 5, 15.
3.
BrothersCRD. Early Victorian psychiatry 1835–1905. Melbourne: Government Printer, 1962.
4.
GartonS. Medicine and madness. Sydney: New South Wales University Press, 1988.
5.
McDonaldDI. Frederic Norton Manning (1830–1903). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society1972; 58: 190–201.
6.
SpringthorpeJW. The Treatment of early mental cases in a general hospital. Medical Journal of Australia1902; 197–202.
7.
DaxEC. The history of the biologically derived treatments in psychiatry. In Biological Psychiatry, Geigy Psychiatry Symposium1979; 103–110.
8.
DaxEC. Asylum to community. Melbourne, F.W. Cheshire, 1961.
9.
ParkinsonJP. The Castle Hill lunatic asylum (1811–1826) and the origins of eclectic pragmatism. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1981; 15: 319–322.
10.
CumminsCJ. The Administration of lunacy and idiocy in New South Wales (1788–1855). Sydney: University of New South Wales, School of Hospital Administration, 1968.
11.
McClemensJHBennetJM. Historical notes on the law of mental illness in New South Wales 1962. Sydney Law Review: 49–74.
12.
ClarkManning. A short history of Australia. Ringwood: Penguin Books, Australia, 1986.
13.
DaxEC. Crimes, follies and misfortunes in the history of Australasian psychiatry. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1981; 15: 257–263.
14.
JonesWE. Psychiatry past present and future. The Beattie Smith Lectures. Medical Journal of Australia1939; 7: 249–256; 287–294.
15.
SmithWB. Insanity in its relations to the practitioners, the patients and the State. Medical Journal of Australia1903; VIII: 53–72.
16.
The Zox Commission 1884–1886. See Brothers CRD. [3].
17.
Medical Journal of Australia, June 20 1925, Nov 20 1926, Nov 26 1927.
18.
The mental health services. Medical Journal of Australia1925:678.
The mental hospital services. Medical Journal of Australia1927:755.
21.
BostockJA. Psychiatric centenary (1848 to 1948). Medical Journal of Australia June 1949:763–769.
22.
ParkerSKnollJI. Partial hospitalisation: an update. American Journal of Psychiatry1990; 147: 156–160.
23.
ClelandWL. Comparative study of the chronic insane, the habitual offender and the endemic unemployed with a view to treatment. Criminological Society of South Australia1987:1–15.
24.
BiererJ. Lancet1959 (2): 901–902.
25.
KramerBM. Day hospital. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1962.
26.
BatchelorIRC. Henderson & Gillepsie's textbook of psychiatry. London: Oxford University Press1969:590.
27.
PentridgeEUHDaxEC. Mental observation wards. Journal of Mental Science1937:1–19.
28.
World Health Organization. Programme development in the mental health field. Geneva: Technical Report 223, 1969.
29.
LewisM. Managing madness. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.1988; 135.
30.
Mental Health Act Victoria, 1986.
31.
Finlay-JonesR. The practice of psychiatry in the community. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1983; 17: 107–198.
32.
DaxEC. The mental health status of the nation. Proceedings of the National Association for Mental Health, Sydney, 1988:2–6.
33.
HerrmanHGMcGorryPDBennettPASinghBS. Age and severe mental disorders in homeless and disaffiliated people in inner Melbourne. Medical Journal of Australia1990; 153: 197–205.
34.
LambHR. Will we save the homeless mentally ill?American Journal of Psychiatry1990; 147: 649–651.
35.
DoutneyCPBurichNVirgonaACohenADanielsP. The prevalence of schizophrenia in a refuge for homeless men. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1985; 19: 233–238.
36.
DaxEC. Less health and more language. News and Notes, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists March 1987:16–21.
37.
RaphaelB. Primary prevention: fact or fiction. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry1980; 14: 163–174.
38.
Dax EC The postgraduate training of psychiatrists in relation to the developing social processes. Proceedings of the World Congress of Psychiatry, Madrid 1965:724–728.
