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Epidemiology of mental disorders emerged in the post-1945 era at the intersections of different areas of knowledge. Given its ambitions, the Stirling County Study provides an instructive case study. It is also a good example of how the epidemiology applied methodological skills from social sciences. This paper aims, first, to reconstruct one of the first episodes in the development of psychiatric epidemiology. Its second purpose is to provide a detailed description of interdisciplinarity at work, and to examine its effects. After explaining some of the major features of the Stirling County Study, I emphasize the links between some of the first results, particularly regarding young people as a population at risk, and the job market after the Great Depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Classic Text is an outline of the Stirling County Study as conceptualized by Alexander H Leighton. It was first presented at a conference held in 1949 organized by the Milbank Memorial Fund, an American philanthropic foundation. The meeting brought together 30–40 experts from across North America. Leighton succinctly explained his frame of reference for the epidemiology of mental disorders and the methodology of the community-based study he conducted in Nova Scotia. The introduction to the text explains contextual points, certain specificities of Leighton's framework, and the discussions that surrounded it, largely dominated by a group of Harvard professors, including Erich Lindemann and John E Gordon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper describes the experience and evaluation of a shared care project targeted at marginalized individuals living in the North End of Halifax, Nova Scotia. This population has high rates of psychiatric disorder, often comorbid with chronic medical conditions, and people have difficulty in obtaining the help they need. This primary care liaison service covers all ages and includes outreach to emergency shelters, transitional housing and drop-in centres. Collaborative care improved access, satisfaction and outcomes for marginalized individuals in urban settings. Primary care providers with access to the service reported greater comfort in dealing with mental health problems, and satisfaction with collaborative care, as well as mental health services in general. Results were significantly better than those of control practices when such data were available. The median wait time was 6 days in comparison with 39.5 days for the comparison site. Conclusions: This model can complement other initiatives to improve the health of marginalized populations, and may be relevant to Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]