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Legal dimensions of the psychiatric halfway house

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Abstract

This paper addresses itself to the solutions developed in Massachusetts to three key legal problem areas with regard to the psychiatric halfway house. These areas are (1) the assurance of the overall quality of the programs through rigorous implementation of regulatory statutes; (2) the determination of beneficial location and equitable geographical distribution of these facilities as enabled through local zoning ordinances-preventing at the same time arbitrary community exclusion; and (3) the establishment of standards for safe, suitable, and feasible structures to house the community residence as determined by building codes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Community Residence Programs, USA

    Richard D. Budson M.D. (Director, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Psychiatrist)

  2. Harvard Medical School, USA

    Richard D. Budson M.D. (Director, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Psychiatrist)

  3. McLean Hospital, 02178, Belmont, Massachusetts

    Richard D. Budson M.D. (Director, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Psychiatrist)

Authors
  1. Richard D. Budson M.D.
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Additional information

This paper was presented at the Annual National Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Detroit, Michigan, May 10, 1974.

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Budson, R.D. Legal dimensions of the psychiatric halfway house. Community Ment Health J 11, 316–324 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01424813

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01424813

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