[Primary network and mental health : results of interventions with identified patients and their primary network.]

The results of a study attempting the systematic application of a network intervention approach to meet the therapeutic needs of 20 non-preselected clients at an outpatient psychiatric clinic showed that this community oriented approach was not only applicable but also beneficial. While our principal objective was to see if a network approach could be adapted to the treatment of an ongoing public psychiatric service for a given sector of the population, our results indicate certains additional trends : those clients who accepted to participate in a network approach (2/3) not only showed decreased symptomatology but also increased personal satisfaction and improvements in their social life. Meanwhile those clients who underwent individual, couple, or family therapy but who did not accept a network approach showed decreases in symptomatology only, without corresponding improvement in other spheres.