Community intervention and mental health: a case study of a neighborhood in Jaffa

Guiding principles of the Community Mental Health Center are comprehensiveness and continuity of care. The Community Mental Health Center in Jaffa, Israel, undertook a project in community intervention which, in effect, applied these principles on a community-wide basis. By helping to establish and sustain an inter-agency coordinating body, the CMHC increased the coordination and cooperation between caretaker agencies. This application of the principle of "continuity of care" on a wide scale had a snowball effect on the community with benefits far beyond the immediate mental health sphere.