Community psychiatry in the sub-arctic. Experiences with the shift from hospital-based to community-based psychiatric services in Northern Norway.

Northern Norway is a vast, elongated area, stretching from south of the polar circle to Cape North. It covers 113 000 square kilometres, 45% of the total area of Norway, and is in length about the same as all Italy. It is, however, inhabited by only 463 000 persons, 10% of the total population of Norway. This makes the area one of most sparsely populated in Europe, with a mean of only 4 persons per square kilometre. There are essentially two reasons for people to be living so far north: One is the gulf stream coming from the Caribbean and going along the coastline, making the climate milder than in other places in the world at the same latitude. The other is the abundance of fish in the sea. Owing to lack of regulations, the fisheries have declined seriously during the last 20 years, but activities connected to the fishing-industry is still very much the backbone of the industry in the area. The population is Caucasian, but with a substantial element of people of indigenous Sami descent. The Sami people were traditionally nomads, living by the reindeer and following the animals' wandering after food during the seasons. There are still many sami people that live by reindeer-keeping, but they are not nomads any more. Norway is a welfare-state with very little poverty, a generally high level of education, and modern, highly technological way of life has penetrated into every corner and every home, even'in the most remote areas. Thus, the