Community Services

Abstract

The common tendency to confine thinking about family services to the professional activities of public and private agencies ignores both commercial services and the functions which families perform for themselves. With their higher incomes, education, leisure, and competence for working out patterns of mutual aid with their urban neighbors, American families will probably rely less in the future on professional assistance and more on themselves. The role of the professional will remain that of remedying difficult cases, of setting stand ards of competence, and of training lay leadership in hygiene, child development, adult education, recreation, and counseling. There will be more emphasis on diffusing the means and knowledge of optimal development of capacities and less on minimal standards of subsistence and adjustment.