IN THE PROVISION of community based mental health services, private psychiatrists play a vital role in the array of consultation, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment services offered to the mentally ill or emotionally disturbed residents of the area. The National Institute of Mental Health which collects data on patients served in a wide variety of psychiatric resources in the country (outpatient psychiatric clinics, psychiatric day-night units, psychiatric services of general hospitals, mental hospitals, and institutions for the mentally retarded)1-5 has heretofore not collected information from this important psychiatric resource—private practice. Studies in selected areas6-9 have indicated that probably as many outpatients are seen by private psychiatrists as by psychiatric clinics which in 1962 served an estimated 750,000 persons in the United States.2 Data on the number and kinds of patients seen and the services provided by private practitioners would contribute to