Community Psychiatry organizes mental health care around people’s lives—integrated primary care, mobile teams, crisis response, supported housing and employment, and peer services—so outcomes improve where they matter. This page details how to design catchment-area programs, align funding and governance, and deliver stepped care that spans prevention, acute stabilization, and long-term recovery. If you’re comparing a public mental health conference, you’ll find models for clinics and outreach, dashboards for quality and equity, and practical ways to include lived experience in decisions.

Sustainable systems depend on relationships and measurement. We outline team compositions (psychiatry, nursing, social work, peers), referral pathways with justice/child-welfare/housing partners, and crisis alternatives to ED (urgent walk-in, mobile response, respite). Evidence-based treatments—CBT/DBT/ACT, MOUD, LAIs—are standardized with clear protocols; registries track function, retention, and safety. Telehealth and community venues reduce access barriers; language and cultural adaptation make services usable. For field operations with high-risk populations, pair with Community Harm Reduction, which complements this page’s system-design focus.