The role of psychiatrists in community mental health centers: a survey of job descriptions.

There is little data about the role of psychiatrists within CMHCs. To gain perspective on this issue, job descriptions for medical directors and staff psychiatrists were collected from 214 CMHCs. The data demonstrated that most CMHCs want fully trained psychiatrists involved in a variety of activities in addition to prescribing medication. Policy development was specifically included as part of the medical director's job for 69% of the CMHCs, and 50% mentioned training as part of the staff psychiatrist's job. Although job descriptions may not accurately reflect the actual roles of the psychiatrist in all cases, these data suggest that CMHCs support a multifaceted role for their psychiatrists.