The therapeutic community: toward a model for implementing patients' rights in psychiatric treatment programs.

This article identifies patients' rights demands and discusses the therapeutic community's potential to act as the conceptual framework for implementing these demands. The author cites five areas in which policy and procedural changes will have to be made: philosophy, physical environment, organizational structure, program, and staff roles and attitudes. Recommendations for change are made in each area. The author concludes that the therapeutic community concept and its philosophy of treatment provide a viable alternative to traditional mental health policy and practice and have the capacity to become the conceptual framework for future residential treatment.