ABSTRACT
Texts concerning health care organisation over the past several decades are unanimous in at least one recommendation: that primary and general health care services should take on the responsibility for the treatment (and prevention) of a number of illnesses that have been handled by specialist services (or by nobody) until now. Mental health planners have been particularly vocal in this respect. This is easy to understand. The prevalence of mental disorders in the general population and in general health care services is high and there are effective relatively easy-to-use methods of treatment. Skills and knowledge necessary for the application of these methods can be conveyed in a reasonably short time and the cost of treatment can be kept low. Preventive interventions are also possible-and most of them have to be implemented by general health care services or social sectors other than health. Examples of primary prevention measures range from the iodination of salt to prevent cretinism and appropriate perinatal care to avoid early brain damage, to the avoidance of hospitalisation of the elderly to prevent cognitive and sensory overload: most of them can be suggested by psychiatrists but have to be implemented by others, outside of the mental health system.
