Résumé :
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Community care was loudly hailed as the cure for many health service problems in the 1970s. It was uncritically assumed to be good for the patient and good for the service. Yet the principles upon such an approach is based remain vague, and practice has been confused, with a lack of proper assessment or evaluation. In this perceptive analysis of the issues involved, much of the fog which surrounds the assumptions is cleared away. First of all, it is argued, we need to decide what our priorities are and what, given financial constraints, individuals should be entitled to receive from the State. Recent legislation concerning mentally ill and mentally handicapped people, promoting residential, day and domiciliary services, is shown to fail to specify client selection, forms of facilities or co-ordination at the client level. There are shown to be three guiding principles to community care : equality of human rights ; living within the community being both a right and a need ; and service recognition of client individuality. Given these principles, it is shown how a realistic service can be operationalised in a practical way, by providing a number of case studies, based on personal experience. The book is particularly concerned with mental handicap and mental illness and will be an important volume for academics, practising professionals, planners and administrators concerned with health and social services.
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