COWEN E. (U.S.A.)

The use of nonprofessional help agents in mental health programs

A rationale for the use of nonprofessionals as human services help agents will first be presented, followed by more detailed consideration of several such programs developed and implemented at the University of Rochester in the past recent years. The primary Mental. Health Project (PMHP), a program for systematic early detection and prevention of school adjustment problems will be used as a central example.

The development of non professional helping programs necessitates new professional roles that can expand mental health's reach. An inviting aspect of some non professional human service programs is that they simultaneously support three interlocking objectives : 1) providing solutions to pressing community problems, 2) better, and more effective, mental health manpower usage, and 3) new directions in graduate (and undergraduate) training in mental health.

Few of the specifics of our four programs are sacrosanct. Such specifics, more likely than not, mirror the needs, resources, interests and ways of perceiving problems in a given community. Although there is doubtless some cross-community generality in such matters, each community nevertheless has its own special problems, needs and styles that new programs must heed.

Using nonprofessional mental health workers is not a panacea. Whatever potential values and benefits the development has, it is still a largely reactive effort to deal with established problems. Engineering settings and programs that promote well-being in the first place is a more attractive social alternative. But since such a Utopia is still quite futuristic, realistic approaches such as nonprofessional helping programs should be encouraged. Although much still remains to be learned about such programs, both the press of social reality and early, encouraging findings more than justify serious further investment in the area.