A health center response to community crisis: Some principles of prevention and intervention

September 1975 saw implementation of Phase Two of mandatory bussing of children in the Boston Public Schools. This article describes the experiences of the neighborhood health center in Charlestown, Massachusetts prior to, during, and after the initial crisis period. Principles relating to prevention and intervention emerged which can be applied by community clinicians when they face potential or actual community crises. The article emphasizes health center efforts to intervene in the anticipatory stress which occurred prior to the onset of bussing. The short- and long-term effects of the crisis on the neighborhood and on the health center are briefly discussed.