B. P. R. Gersons: Some remarks concerning the role and position of the psychiatrists to the mental health field.
Some factors are of special relevante considering the contribution of the psychiatrists to the mental health care delivery. This contribution is relatively decreasing, meanwhile there is a sharp rise in the need for psychiatrists.
This has resulted from the multiplying of mental health teams as a consequence of the enormous increase of non-medical caregivers while every team wants his own psychiatrist as part of the multidisciplinary team. Psychiatrists who are contributing to these teams are confronted by teammembers who are experts in their own fields and who are claiming these fields. So the psychiatrist is endangered by the restricted task of medication and less acknowledges as a trained integral caregiver. This part of the reductionistic process concerning the task of the psychiatrist is intensified by the complication of the usual role-blurring of psychiatrists.