Comprehensive sexual health centers: is it time?

Psychiatric epidemiologic research, mental health professionals, and nonpsychiatric physicians still largely avoid dealing with the problems of sexual identity and function. The Department of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, in contrast to these trends, has established a Center for Human Sexuality, an innovative mental health center that employs full- and part-time staff to provide services, education, and research. The Center may serve as a model for other institutions that perceive the social, academic, and economic value of dealing with these high prevalence, underserved problems. The support of administration and the multidisciplinary interaction of mental health professionals among themselves and with nonpsychiatric physicians have been crucial to the Center's viability. Strategies for dealing with health care administration are discussed.