RE-EVALUATION OF ANCILLARY THERAPIES

The majority of the problems enumerated, although typically chronic, are, for the most part, neither too serious nor too inevitable, provided periodic evaluations of the programs are made in terms of what they currently contribute to the total treatment process rather than existing as programs for programs' sake. Most of these were conceived in a spirit of humanity and the Christian ethic, in an attempt to ameliorate the situation of the patient sentenced to custodial incarceration, and were no doubt quite useful in that function. The fact that some of their practices and orientations have become obsolete is not so much an indictment of the proponents of these programs as a tribute to the progress made in the general field of mental health since the early part of the present century. What is needed is not so much a house cleaning as a rearrangement, with proportionate allocations made to those activities contributing most to the ultimate goals of the hospital in keeping with current philosophies.