Community families: an alternative to psychiatric hospital intensive care.

For the past four years Southwest Denver Community Mental Health Services, Inc., has had a system of alternative families who take one or two psychiatric patients who need intensive treatment into their homes; the clients' average stay is ten days. Thus far approximately 220 client placements have been effectively carried out in a network of five homes. Clients who receive psychotropic medication have its effects monitored by a staff psychiatrist, medical nurse coordinator, and nurse clinician. A study conducted by independent researchers over the initial two-year period indicates that the homes are more effective in certain respects than a psychiatric hospital in providing intensive care.