Publisher's Synopsis
In recent years there has been a trend towards the transference of care for the mentally handicapped from NHS hospitals into the community, placing the responsibility for community care in the hands of the local authorities. But the development of local community services raises many issues relating to staff. How are they to be recruited and selected for the new community services? Will they be drawn from the hospital sector? Will skills and attitudes developed in hospitals still be relevant? What are the training needs of those working in the new services? This book attempts to answer these questions using the results of an intensive study of staff working in two organizations - an NHS long-stay hospital subject to closure and a new local authority staffed housing service which was receiving some of the hospital's residents and employing a number of its ex-staff.
