ABSTRACT
As the problem of emptying the hospitals became transformed into the problem of maintaining people in the community, the need for community-based program activities became apparent. Day programs of one type or another had been a formal part of community mental health policy since day hospital programming was required as one of the five stipulated services of the federally-funded community mental health centers program. Since then the number and variety of types of day programs have grown dramatically to include such program categories as day hospitals, training programs highlighting ‘normalization’ and/or ‘socialization’ skills, vocationally-oriented programs and psycho-social clubs.
