Self-referrals to a community psychiatric clinic

munity based psychiatric services. There is no single view of CMHCs in the United Kingdom and, while many such centres already exist, they are diverse in nature and their activities have been sparsely documented. An issue often raised by proponents of these ser vices is whether to allow potential patients to by-pass the normal referral channels and present themselves directly to the service. The notion of self-referrals to secondary services is a source of anxiety among psy chiatrists who fear an overwhelming demand on ser vices by an inappropriate clientele. However, there has been few documented experiences of self referrals to psychiatric services in the UK, exceptions being the Maudsley Emergency Clinic (e.g. Lim, 1983)and the Eastgate Community Mental Health Centre in Lewes (Hutton, 1985). Hutton's account of the Eastgate CMHC was