PSYCHIATRIC-CARE OF THE HOMELESS MENTALLY-ILL - AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MILITARY PSYCHIATRY TRAINING

This paper reviews the phenomenon of homelessness in the United States and locally in Washington, D.C. Prevalence data of psychiatric illness in the homeless is presented, as is the formation of a psychiatric service network to treat the homeless mentally ill. Additionally, the author describes the development of an innovative training program in community psychiatry, focusing specifically on issues inherent in understanding the work of the psychiatric resident in community-based training and service delivery. The relevance of this experience to military medicine involves training psychiatric residents to develop service-delivery schemes in times of rapidly expanding mental health needs, such as combat.