Beyond mad, bad and sad: a case for considering community mental health and the means to assess it.

Where non-western communities are exposed to economic development and modernization, negative psychosocial outcomes have been clearly demonstrated. This paper begins by noting the manner in which mental health is commonly construed by health professionals in the South Pacific, argues for a change in perspective, and justifies the use of a less clinically-oriented social-process vitamin model to audit mental health outcomes. A framework suitable for use with tightly knit, culturally homogeneous communities is proposed followed by an outline of how relevant psychosocial characteristics within the environment might be audited to provide an assessment of community mental health.