Family members as monitors in a state mental hospital.

In 1983 the cooperative efforts of the Western Massachusetts Alliance for Mentally Ill Citizens and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health led to the development of a program in which family members of patients at Northampton State Hospital monitor conditions at the hospital. The authors describe the process that generated the program, the training and duties of the family monitors, the role of the hospital administration and staff in the monitoring process, and the program's outcomes. They believe that the program gives families a much-needed role in the care of mentally ill relatives and that the staff-family collaboration it fosters strengthens the power of advocacy.