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Innovation in Social Policy – the Case of the Therapeutic Community*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

Students of social policy have studied in some depth the fate of new ideas when they came close to inclusion in new policies, and especially new legislation. Less attention has been paid to the process whereby new ideas are generated, and the impact of advocacy on the future of simultaneous but independent innovation. Here, the therapeutic community, developed during the last war in response to largely neurotic difficulties in military personnel, is examined as a case study of innovation, and of the fate of innovation as a result of official support, and enthusiastic proselytization by committed practitioners.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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39 This, as has been noted, included American connections. Interestingly the Americans did not develop the therapeutic community concept independently, which supports the interpretation that the catalytic impact of the war in Britain was an essential addition to an unsatisfactory hospital System and social science knowledge, both of which the Americans had. Indeed the Americans attempted hospital reforms after careful research, rather than innovating ‘on the run’, which resulted in more limited though broader changes.

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60 Since the National Health Service reorganization the Area Health Authority has been pressing for evidence which proves its efficacy, and justifies its high staff-patient ratio. However the evaluation of therapeutic community practice presents certain problems: it is multi-dimensional, and research is often designed to investigate single dimensions; it combines efforts at both intra-psychic and behavioural change; most previous studies in this area have focused on process rather than outcome; even then outcome success is only one goal amongst many which have been and continue to change. For these reasons orthodox experimental designs do not work, and a more eclectic, flexible approach must be pursued. See for example, Clarke, R. V. G. and Cornish, D. B., The Controlled Trial in Institutional Research, London: HMSO, 1972.Google Scholar It is no doubt of significance for the relative decline of the therapeutic community that this evaluative work has not yet been adequately tackled.

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