The authors describe a group-home program that has been operating
successfully for three years in St. Louis, Mo. The program offers ex-
mental hospital patients the opportunity to gradually acquire experience in
living independently in the community. The success of a living arrangement
in which an apartment is shared by a group of patients demonstrates
long-term chronic patients can often adjust to minimally supervised living
arrangements and that many ex-mental hospital patients can use this
experience as a springboard to personal growth and eventual autonomy.Abstract Teaser