New Perspectives of Mental Patient Care

IN 1957, the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, operating under a general mandate from Congress, formed a task force on new perspectives of mental patient care with the following mission: (a) to describe mental patient care systems as they exist and explore assumptions on which they are based; (b) to look for new and promising leads in ways of providing better mental patient care; (c) to make specific and general recommendations, based on opinions and suggestions of experts in the field, as well as on current experiences, with new approaches under way in various communities across the nation. The task force, consisting of eight professionals headed by Morris S. Schwartz, Ph.D., began its work early in 1957. Among the eight, there were six social scientists, an expert on rehabilitation, and a psychiatrist with considerable experience in community mental health practice.* The group divided itself into three teams, each one assuming responsibility for the following elements of mental patient care systems: (a) services and facilities for outpatient care; (b) services and facilities