Care programming in mental-health - assimilation and adaptation

Two years after the care programme approach in mental health was introduced there is still widespread confusion about its meaning and its relation to other changes in the arena of community care. This paper looks at how care programmes are being implemented and at whom they are being targeted. It also examines the relation between care management and care programming and raises some questions about future developments in the light of community care reforms. It draws on data collected during 1992 from three contrasting health districts, all of which had made considerable progress in care programming. Sixty practitioners were interviewed about the theory and practice of care programming. Their experience is presented here in the context of a review of community care plans for 1992/93 which characterizes the responses of different local authorities to the approach.