After a brief critical analysis of some of the limitations of community psychiatry, the authors give an historical review of the social psychiatric network and its characteristics. They then describe their manner of applying the network concept, an approach whose originality consists in asking the patient to reunite his primary network (family, friends, neighbours, etc.) in order to identify the problems and to determine how (the network) can help. They develop a different approach from that of community psychiatry, by emphasizing the role of primary networks as emotional support structures and as a non-psychiatric solution. However, the network intervention is not presented as a cure-all and the authors conclude by describing the limitations of their approach.
[Networking, an alternative model of community empowerment.] Publishing Authors By Initials
