ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the fate and experiences of unsuccessful applicants to child and who were denied service by child psychiatric agencies. Professional personnel in the psychiatric clinics often tell the client to "go" to a particular agency or professional without arranging the referral for him. The chapter finds no significant differences between the families interviewed and the remainder of the target population with respect to child's age and sex, type of symptom, disposition of clinic. It examines the court-clinic cases, which are roughly equivalent to the Type 1 guidance cases, the relationship between social status and reaction to advice does not hold and, in fact, is slightly reversed. However, differences in social status are manifested in reactions to clinic personnel and the tendency to use nonpsychiatric sources. The chapter finds that those of lower status, as compared with higher status, felt less comfortable in child-guidance clinics, expected less, critical of the advice they received from the personnel.
