Transitional care: a new approach to aftercare.

The transitional-care program incorporates the principles of behavior modification and group and family therapy in order to help recently discharged psychiatric patients maintain the positive changes that occurred in the hospital. Patients meet for approximately three hours a week, for up to 12 weeks, with nursing staff who worked with them while they were hospitalized. Each patient has an individual treatment program and goals, and during meetings with his team he discusses his progress and problems in meeting those goals. Staff members encourage patients to accept responsibility for each other and not to become too dependent on them. The program has been successful in preventing rehospitalization.