ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the therapeutic community movement and key principles as well as outlining the rather contemporary idea of a therapeutic environment. It presents a new idea, “therapeutic atmospheres”, which can be created in most psychiatric, mental health, and social care settings and which create the best opportunity for the patient to make a personal, clinical, and social recovery from severe mental illness. Job descriptions should reflect the needs of the therapeutic community with an expectation that community members are involved in some aspect of selection of new staff members. The therapeutic programme is overseen by appropriately qualified staff, and is also underpinned by psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory. The therapeutic community has an active and open approach to external relationships and information is regularly shared with professionals and carers. The chapter examines therapeutic environments as purposeful and aimed at giving patients the best opportunity to express their individuality and ability to relate to others in a well led and structured setting.
