Residential Programs: a community responsibility

Includes bibliographical references (pages 75-79)The concept of treating the mentally ill in residential\ud settings began 700 years ago in the town of Gheel, Belgium.\ud Since that time, the use of residential settings to treat the\ud mentally ill has grown and incorporated the use of clinical\ud staff as well as formalized program structures. This paper\ud reviews extant literature on the development and provision of\ud mental health services to the mentally ill in residential\ud settings coupled with fostering independent living skills.\ud The mentally ill are faced with myriad problems of learning\ud to cope with present day society. Mental health professionals\ud are challenged by the multiple needs of the mentally ill and\ud this paper hopes to provide baseline information on the\ud problems facing the mentally ill and the needs most often\ud seen in treating this population. This paper looks at what\ud is available to them in the form of residential programs \ud currently and focuses on one local program, Somos Amigos in\ud depth