A Community Treatment Program

Believing that hospitalization reinforces the dependent qualities frequently found in mental patients, investigators at Mendota Mental Health Institute developed an intensive treatment program in the community. Patients are randomly assigned to the program, called Training in Community Living; they live and work in the community with support from a specially trained staff. They remain in the program for 14 months and are gradually linked with appropriate community services. The program is being evaluated by comparison with a control group, most of whom receive progressive hospital treatment and community aftercare. As of July 1974, hospitalization had been avoided for all but ten of the 89 patients assigned to the program.