The principle of separate responsibility and the therapeutic community

Within a psychiatric hospital it has been attempted to realize a maximum number of the elements of the therapeutic community. Problems here are the short median stays of patients and the rapid turnover of both patients and staff. What is more, a basic problem of the therapeutic community was encountered, namely that the interests of the individual patient and of the patients as a group are considered as identical. Thus there came about the development of the principle of separate responsibility, whereby a division of responsibility is made between the individual patient and the unit. Work is carried out by multidsiciplinary and largely democratized teams.