[Balance of a therapeutic dwelling community -self-aid or care? (author's transl]

A therapeutic dwelling community (TDC) which has been in existence for more than 3 years, is described in respect to its history of origin and development outside existing psychiatric institutions or facilities. After having been confronted with the unsatisfactory follow-up care of a group of relatively young, in most cases only medium-term hospitalized schizophrenic patients, the initiators of TDC developed a concept which was destined to strike a balance between care and activation of self-aid within the TDC in order to promote the mental stability and autonomy of the former patients. A description is given of the tension arising from the concept, between the claims on the part of the residents for care to be given to them on the one hand, and the expectations on the part of the guiding personnel with regard to the self-aid potential of the inhabitants, the description being given for different levels. The structure, dynamics and results of group activities within the TDC are also described. In this connection, an attempt is made to show up the individual and group-referred limits of self-regulation of the inhabitants and of the therapeutic interventions; overstepping these limits endangers individual management of the TDC. An attempt is made to derive conclusions on the basis of the collected experience, which may be of importance for similar projects in respect of structure, financial jurisdiction, admission criteria etc.