A Community's Perception of a Treatment Project

Abstract

Prior to the opening of a rurally located treatment program for public inebriates, a concentrated public relations effort was made to inform and reassure the inhabitants of the local and surrounding neighborhoods about the program. This was seen as essential in the face of some initial skepticism and even hostility on the part of some locals. Every effort was made thereafter, too, to encourage interaction between both staff and resident members of the program and the community. Four years later a survey of neighborhood householders showed 65 per cent had had no direct contact with the program. However, those who had expressed positive attitudes towards the facilities, the residents, the staff and the program were overwhelmingly positive