The author emphasizes the need for a wide variety of community living arrangements for former mental patients, and describes a private residential-care program he founded in New York City in 1966. The program includes the 196-bed Boerum Hill Home for Adults, which is certified by the state as a proprietary home and a community residence, and the Brooklyn Vocational Rehabilitation Institute, which conducts vocational training programs for former patients in clerical, food service, and home management areas. It also operates a 64-bed satellite-housing and apartment-living program. The problems and advantages of operating a proprietary home are discussed, as well as some of the broader issues involved in community care of former patients.
Abstract Teaser