A brief moment of glory: the impact of the therapeutic community movement on the drug treatment systems in the UK

Abstract

The introduction of concept-based therapeutic communities, based upon the model pioneered by Charles Dederich with the Synanon community in California, was a significant development in the evolution of drug treatment provision in the UK. For a short period in the 1970s, these communities enjoyed unparalleled influence in the development and direction of treatment approaches across the whole spectrum of services. This paper considers the developments in psychiatry and social care that prepared the ground for that phenomenon. In addition, the paper considers the subsequent demise in the importance of therapeutic communities to the direction of drug policy and the implications that this might have for future development of residential treatment services.