Community families: a seven-year program perspective.

During the past seven years, Southwest Denver Community Mental Health Services, Inc., has made use of an alternative network of families in lieu of psychiatric hospitalization. This particular article focuses on its key operational aspects and considers recruitment, screening, and support structures which have enabled the project to become a viable community mental health center program. In addition, there is a discussion of the limitations of the system and how it might be integrated with psychiatric hospital services.