The acute administration ward as a therapeutic community

The authors evaluated six acute short-stay admission wards in a community mental health center using the sociometric Ward Atmosphere Scale. There was an attempt to run three of the six wards as therapeutic communities. No differences were found on Ward Atmosphere Scale dimensions between the therapeutic communities and other types of programs, nor did the therapeutic communities conform to an empirically derived therapeutic community program dimension profile. Possible reasons for this failure and its implications for community mental health centers are discussed.