To facilitate the functioning of family caretakers as care-givers who promote the independent role performance of patient-residents, a seminar was designed to change the atittudes of the 17 caretakers about "mental illness." Using a "demythologizing" approach, the leader induced a significant attitude change. (Author)

A humanistic ideology which emphasizes self-determination, self-reliance, and personal responsibility in decision making, is congruent with the goal of community psychiatry to integrate the ex-institutionalized psychiatric client in the community. The following applications of this ideology in a small community mental health center are described:…