Working with key players for psychological and mental health public services

Key players must be located and identified in order to perform public service. For doing this, a model for organizing a societal mental health program, which includes the three agency categories of voluntary, official, and professional, is presented. It shows that psychologists can function in any community from local to international in each category. The author portrays some of the forces that turned him to public service. Then he cites his public service experience in various communities, such as the mental health association, the official mental health program, the psychological association, and the university. He identifies key players and explains methods of working with them. Finally, he summarizes some requisite skills for successful service activities. Primary among the skills are locating and relating to key community decision makers and understanding how the helping community functions.