The community mental health system in Japan is being adversely affected by diminishing public mental health services, including those provided by public healthcare centers and the mental health divisions of municipal governments. It seems reasonable to expect that this will lead to the inadequate detection, assessment, and treatment of the population with mental health problems, and thus to the flooding of psychiatric hospitals with excessive numbers of severely mentally ill patients. In this article, the author suggests the utility of a ‘network-based outreach team’as a possible remedy for the current situation.
 The Okayama Prefectural Mental Health & Welfare Center is running a network-based outreach team on a trial basis to work with individuals with serious mental illness who are disengaged from mental health services. The team is composed of members from the Mental Health & Welfare Center, public mental health services, and human service agencies. The main aims of this team are two-fold : to enhance support for clients with severe mental illness who are overwhelmed with multiple complex problems, through collaborative intervention within the framework of a network-based outreach team ; and to develop the qualities and skills of public mental health service and human agency personnel in order that they better assist people with severe mental illness, by providing joint training with mental health specialists of the Mental Health & Welfare Center in community settings.
 The author suggests that the team structure of the network-based outreach team will benefit public mental health services by reintegrating currently fragmented services into coordinated ones.