Intake procedures at a community mental health clinic.

It is suggested that it is necessary to modify classical techniques so that the responsibility for the care of large numbers of people can be discharged. One approach has been practiced for three years at the North Suffolk Mental Health Center in Boston. This method allows for diagnostic procedures to be integrated with administrative follow through enabling a family to be helped rapidly. After three years, this approach has made it possible to see more than 700 families without a waiting list and with a possibility of making diagnoses within the major diagnostic categories of child pathology. This procedure has been an important reason for a positive relationship with the community and has enabled the Center to enter areas of consultation and education more easily.