Psychiatric Case Registers in Public Health [antikvár]

PREFACEVI. GULBINAT and J.H. HENDERSONWHO HEADQUARTERS, Geneva and WHO, EURO, CopenhagenThis monograph is the result of a joint effort by researchers, practitioners and administrators from different countries, all of whom have had considerable experience with psychiatric case registers and each of whom may be regarded as an expert in the field. They have contributed to this volume, either directly, by writing a section on a specific topic, or indirectly, by pro-viding detailed information about "their" register and by com-menting and advising on previous drafts of this book.The initiative for this work came from the Mentái Health Program of the World Health Organization (WHO). It would be useful first, to briefly examine current perspectives in WHO policy and show where the work on psychiatric registers fits into the Organization Ss program and then, to outline the reasons why a project on psychiatric case registers was launched, what this mono-graph is intended to achieve and where future research in this field should be directed.Over the last ten years, WHO's role has been redefined, and the direction, purpose, content and style of its work modified accordingly. The starting point of this reorientation was dis-satisfaction on the part of member states with health policy trends in developing and developed parts of the world. In de-veloping countries, it was recognized that the deficiencies in health service infrastructure, and the lack of access to health services for the majority of people, were problems which could not be overcome by copying or importing medical care systems typical of European or North American countries. This is mainly because of the dependency of such systems on high technology and on academically trained health workers. In developed countries, a vicious c.ircle had been created in which the development of high technology was leading to demands for yet more sophisticated services and to an explosion of costs in the health services which even the most wealthy societies could not afford.In 1978 the member states resolved to call a halt to these dangerous trends. At a conference in Alma-Ata, organized jointly by WHO and UNICEF, primary health care was accepted as the most