Associate professor of psychiatric nursing and chairman, Department of Psychiatric Nursing, University of California School of Nursing, San Francisco, MIARION E. KALKMNAN earned a bachelor's degree at Brown University, Providence, R.I., a diploma from the Army School of Nursing, Washington, D.C., and a master's degree from Stanford University, California. She has had extensive experience in psychiatric nursing and is the author of Psychiatric Nursing (McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y.) now in its third edition. This paper is based on a speech delivered in Lubbock, Texas, at an institute sponsored by District 8, Texas Nurses Association and the Lubbock Mental Health Association. quire nursing care outside of mental hos itals than in these hospitals. The patient who returns to the community after a perio of p olonged psychiatric treatment faces a number of difficult problems. Hopefully, he has been referred to a public health agency for follow-up or, particularly if he is on drugs, has some medical supervision. The help a public health nurse can give such patients is not the focus of this paper. Here, I prefer to focus on persons not considered patients in this sense.