Journal of Primary Prevention,3(2},Winter, 1982

The Helping Network Approach: Community Promotion of Mental Health MARC PILISUK, SUSAN HILLIER PARKS, JACQUELINE KELLY and ELIZABETH TURNER ABSTRACT: The Galt Helping Network Project was a two-year program to augment

mental health and community services in a rural California community through the use of natural or informal resources. The experiment made use of a preventive intervention model which identified important needs of local youth and families, board and care residents, the entire community for recreation and for mental health services, and the Mexican American Community for recognition and participation. It brought a number of volunteers into the provision of direct services and created a number of institutional forms by which continued services and enlarged voluntary participation in community affairs are continuing beyond the official end of the project. This article concludes that the Galt Helping Network Model can provide a major contribution to mental health maintenance and community involvement through the recognition of natural helpers and the involvement of the community in an active form of problem solving. Through these methods a community with limited fiscal resources can take a major step toward providing a caring and helping environment for its members. S t u d y of i n f o r m a l a s s i s t a n c e s u g g e s t s t h e p o w e r of t h e n a t u r a l social a n d familial n e t w o r k s in s u p p o r t i n g health, p r o v i d i n g referrals, a n d in g e n e r a t i n g direct a s s i s t a n c e (Coward, 1978; G o t t l i e b , 1979; Pilisuk & Froland, 1978; Stoller, 1979}. I t is clear t h a t n a t u r a l help a n d a r r a n g e d m u t u a l help a c t i v i t i e s p r o v i d e b o t h a n a m o u n t a n d a q u a l i t y of service t h a t c a n n o t b e m e t b y p r o f e s s i o n a l helpers in e x i s t i n g service i n s t i t u t i o n s . T h i s b a s i c f a c t h a s led t o i n c r e a s i n g d i s c u s s i o n of n a t u r a l familial a n d i n d i g e n o u s c o m m u n i t y a s s i s t a n c e as a c o m p o n e n t of t h e d e l i v e r y of e s s e n t i a l h u m a n s e r v i c e s (Collins & P a n c o a s t , 1976; H a w k e s , 1978; Howell, 1973; P i l i s u k & Froland, 1978; Schon, 1977}.

The authors are affiliated with the Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis. This study was supported in part by funds from the Agricultural Experiment Station. The authors express appreciation to Paula Heady for her production of the manuscript, to the directors and administrators of the Galt project, and to the people of Galt for their willing cooperation with us as we followed the project from inception to completion. Copies of the full project report entitled "Community as Provider: A Model and a Case Study" may be obtained by writing the first author. 0278-095X{82}1600-0116502.75

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@1982HumanSciencesPress

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The case for indigenous help is also founded upon a recognition of the problems experienced when rural or nonmetropolitan communities adopt programs originally designed for urban centers. Frequently the difficulty lies in failure to recognize the power of the existing natural patterns of assistance or the importance of community leaders (Berry & Davis, 1978; Coward, 1978; Lee, Giantusco & Eisdorfer, 1974; Mermelstein & Sundet, 1973}. Similar themes are reflected in studies of ethnically defined communities (Fandetti & Gelfand, 1978}. This article describes a model for community mental health development through means of indigenous community networks. The model was designed specifically for nonmetropolitan communities with increasing needs for social services and declining revenues for the development of programs. The Galt Helping Network Project (GHN} was conceived as a community support system model for a rural community which integrated both the natural helping system and the formal mental health helping system for developing community awareness of mental health needs and resources. It sought to create a broader sense of ownership requiring participation of unconventional or informal community leadership. Additionally, the model addressed the issue of how empowerment of the service acquirer constituency can influence control of policy and planning of services. The five major components of the helping network model are: (1) selection of the external intervention and coordination team or project staff; (2) developing a community umbrella group to provide guidance and sanction for the overall project; (3) identification of and contact with natural community helpers; (4) the development of natural helping teams for problem solving on behalf of a family or individual in crisis or pre-crisis situations; and (5} the use of constituency-based problem solving as a means for increased community and human service agency interaction in addressing community level issues. The helping network project is intended to serve a transitional function as a catalyst within the community. It was conceived as a system with no special vested interest other than to assist the natural and professional helping realms to cooperate in such ways that community resources are maximized and that all community constituencies are served. To accomplish these ends, the system is designed to become a primary negotiating arena for constituencies. The potential for the acquirers' resources to be used systematically for the mutual benefit of other consumers and providers remains generally untapped. For a helping system to be effective on a community basis, the GHN project assumed that a constituency must

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be recognized, empowered to organize and to articulate its priorities, and assisted, where necessary, to negotiate these priorities with other local constituencies. Through means of goal identification workshops, held first separately for acquirer and provider groups and then together, the constituencies are provided a channel for articulating their wants and priorities and negotiating them. A third workshop with repres e n t a t i v e s of b o t h service acquirer and service provider constitutuencies facilitates the negotiation of their respective interests and priorities. This goal identification and priority establishment accomplishes several major tasks. First, it allows service acquirers, who are generally the least represented in the development of programs for their benefit, the opportunity to determine and articulate their priorities for human service programs. Second, by developing action steps for each identified need, constituency leadership emerges as individuals volunteer to be responsible for specific steps. Third, the goal identification process provides an equal opportunity for service providers to identify their needs as professionals, and helps them clarify their perceptions of the needs of the community. Finally, the process of assisting service acqui~ers to define their needs serves as a source of empowerment. This empowerment is demonstrated by the ability of previously neglected groups to negotiate their wants with service providers in a manner which balances the power disparities of the two groups a bit more equally. The net result of this is that both groups are able to communicate more clearly, thereby increasing the possibility for truly effective human service programming.

The Case Study Background From its founding in 1869 through the 1960s the town of Gait had persisted as a socially cohesive, moderately growing, conservative, white middle-class community. Typical among small rural communities, everyone knew everyone else, and helping and supportive exchange among neighbors was commonplace. The decade of the seventies produced some notable changes. Galt's population of 5,200 at the beginning of the Gait Helping Network Project in 1978 was increasing rapidly, and the town was becoming a bedroom community of Sacramento. Fourteen hundred single family dwellings were built in three

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years' time and estimates for population growth in the 1980s were in the area of 50%, as residential developments were completed. Many of these new homes were government subsidized. The relatively lower cost of living in this community brought dramatic demographic and social changes. Beginning about five years be~ fore the onset of the Helping Network Project, the Spanish surname census altered, changing its representation from 3% to approximately 20% of the Gait population. While the Mexican-American influx added to the proportion of children and youths, the elderly population also grew. The over-65 population grew to 19%, which equaled the anticipated national average for the year 2000 (U.S. Bureau of Statistics, 1979). The under-19 population was an unusually high 29% of the total population, and a full 75% of the working population commuted to work to nearby Sacramento and outlying towns. It is notable that the influx of elderly, youth, and underprivileged groups with fixed or minimal incomes placed a strain on local services, while as a group their tax dollar contributions for local services were also at a minimum. 1 The population included a special group of about 250 chronically mentally and/or developmentally disabled individuals residing in sheltered-care residences in and around the outskirts of the city. By the late 1970s, the privately operated residential board and care homes constituted the third largest industry in the town, following local retail businesses and farming interests.

Galt Helping Network Project The two-year project was federally funded at a modest $35,000/year and administered by the Sacramento County Department of Mental Health. The decision to locate the Helping Network Project in the city of Galt was based upon several factors. Gait was chosen, in part, because of a high concentration of mentally and developmentally disabled persons residing in board and care facilities. More important, perhaps, was the fact that newly emerging problems in Galt were exceeding the meager resources of existing formal services while, at the very same time, state and county funds were being reduced {Pilisuk, 1980). The selection of Galt by county mental health professionals is important when considering the theoretical concept of the program, which was to be a locally based preventive mental health program using the resources of the community. The project did not result from a community level policy, nor did the community invite the project into its midst. Under these circumstances, gaining entry into the community

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was a challenge requiring great sensitivity on the part of the project director, hired by the county, and the three volunteer staff members recruited by the director.

External Intervention and Coordination Team (Project Staff) By design, the project staff, paid and volunteer, retains the perspective of the director whose term with the community is temporary and whose interests stand apart from the various segments constituting the continuing community. The team strives for broader community involvement, whatever the outcome of such involvement may be, and retains a stance of attitudinal neutrality to the content of community decisions. While the model works to make various interest groups better able to represent their own needs, the project staff works only to catalyze and facilitate the expression and negotiation of these interests and not to assert its own priorities.

Umbrella Group Formation The initial task of the project staff was to gain support and to organize a set of committed linkages on a community-wide level. If the support and involvement of formal and informal community leaders could be achieved, the project would not only have a better chance of succeeding during its 2-year lifespan, but also community ownership of its future would be enhanced. (Kelly, 1978) According to the project model, the umbrella group serves both to advise and to legitimize the actions of the larger project. They are chosen because they are recognized as influential and usually occupy formal roles of leadership in the community. The influential set of community figures actually chosen in Galt were provided with early access to information about the process and with opportunities to provide suggestions. In this way the project mobilized a powerful segment of the community who would not be likely to fear or to resist the community changes which were to develop. To select the umbrella group, project staff conducted interviews with individuals identified as community leaders either by virtue of their formal roles or by recommendation of knowledgeable community members. The interviews were designed to communicate project goals, to determine priorities among various mental health needs in the community, and to uncover informal helping resources. The procedure pro~The negative consequences of boom town development have been studied elsewhere {Bates, Clark & Burtsche, 1980; Freudenburg, 1979).

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duced a community umbrella group of approximately 20 individuals who were both influential in the community and willing to assist the project. Early in the interview process, a meeting with the principal of the high school affirmed that problems he was confronted with at school usually originated in the home. When asked how the project could help him, he replied that he thought a community-wide needs assessment survey would be a helpful way to understand these problems. As interviews with community influentials progressed, project staff discovered considerable concern about the general problem area of families and youth in Galt. At the same time, again through grapevine inquiry, GHN developed a list of individuals known in the community to be particularly helpful to others, i.e., natural helpers. Thus, groundwork was being laid in two ways, that of organizing around an issue, and beginning to map the local informal support systems. Of the 20 city leaders interviewed 12 came to the first meeting. They represented various interest groups in the town: the high school superintendent, a central person on the Chamber of Commerce, the past principal of the high school, the city manager, police chief, and other civic-minded business people. Within the broader umbrella group, this group of 12 assumed a more active advisory or project support function and agreed to sponsor community-wide meetings to assess services and determine priorities in Galt. During the course of the project, individual members of the group continued to support the project in various ways, through lobbying efforts and in procuring needed resources.

Constituency-Based Problem-Solving Forums The umbrella group provided effective sponsorship for several community forums. The first series of forums utilized the structured constituency-based problem-solving techniques (Bartee & Chayunski, 1977; Bartee & Kelly, 1979). This approach uses a series of goal identification workshops for determining priorities among unmet needs advanced by various (sometimes conflicting) interest groups in the community and for mobilizing community commitment. These carefully structured forums are particularly useful for the constituency of service requirers whose interests and power are typically more fragmented than those of the providers or funders of services. Fifty people from various elements of the community participated in the first series, devoted to assessing the needs of youth and families. The forums developed a resource of c o m m u ~ t y commitment around particular action plans which resulted in several community activities and policy recommendations. The three major areas of these forums

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emerged not only from the concerns of the initial umbrella group but also as outcomes from the concerns raised in meetings. The constituency-based problem-solving technique proved effective in (1) articulating the concerns of such groups as high school students, school officials, local business leaders, and agency representatives; (2) establishing some priorities around these concerns; and (3) developing an overall sense of community. In February of 1980 (during the project's second year}, a communitywide forum was held to review services in Galt and to determine gaps and overlaps. This forum was initiated by a group of individuals who were active in the project's needs assessment activities the previous summer, and who were concerned about a proliferation of services and professional agencies which had suddenly "discovered" Gait. Citizens were concerned that agencies might compete for limited funds in a way that could result in detrimental programming for the community. With the assistance of GHN project staff, again employing the constituency-based problem-solving technique, this group hosted a forum of 40 persons with representatives from six agencies. Agency representatives described their programs, and the discussion which followed resulted in the formation of an ad hoc, nine member Steering Committee to assess the needs and services of Galt with greater sensitivity. This group met over a four-month period, studying current services, communicating with the Galt Interagency Group, and eventually came up with a statement of recommendations. These recommendations were presented to the Mental Health Advisory Board and the Board of Supervisors of Sacramento County. As a result the county approved support for a Mental Health Outpatient Referral Center in Galt. After their research and advocacy role was concluded, the group re~ turned to the priorities that arose from the needs assessment workshop a year before, and chose recreation as its next focus. Since that time the group had expanded its membership and planned a community workshop to involve all local citizens interested in assessing recreation needs and developing a coordinated recreation plan for the city. The steering committee continued to operate on an ad hoc, projectoriented basis drawing upon the original umbrella group as needed. The group resisted becoming a formal organization, preferring to maintain its independence from any single agency. The Galt Network was the primary catalyst and facilitator of the group, but did not direct or dictate what the group should do at the end of the two-year experiment. With the Gait Helping Network Project becoming part of a county mental health Outpatient Resource Center, the steering com-

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mittee will need in the future to become even more independent of the GHN office and the question of how to accomplish this perpetuation without becoming a hide-bound institution was a major focus of discussion within the group.

Natural Helpers Natural community helpers are individuals who, without a socially designated human service role, are consistent providers of assistance to a number of people in their community. In this model, the identification of natural helpers provides information about what kinds of supportive arrangements already exist, and where the gaps appear. These same natural helpers have access to information about community attitudes and interests that advisory boards frequently miss. During the same period of time that project staff interviewed community leaders for the purpose of developing the sanctioning umbrella group, they also interviewed 30 persons, identified by the consensus method to be particularly helpful individuals. This was in keeping with a major project goal, i.e., to identify existing informal helping resources and supportive networks, and to make them more accessible to the community. The findings from these interviews were presented to a gathering of community, agency, county and state representatives, including many of the natural helpers themselves. Although the GHN project provided some training for persons who volunteered their time to act as receptionists in the office, it did not provide generalized training for people who wanted to volunteer. The procedure for becoming a volunteer was intentionally simple, i.e., signing name, address, phone number, and a personal description of ways in which the individual thought s/he might be able to help another in the project Blue Book. Volunteers were prized for their own natural skills and not for how they could fit into structured project needs. This meant that many volunteers were not called upon frequently for their services, since the right "match" had to occur. But over the course of the two years, over 100 persons volunteered their time to the project in a variety of ways. Table 1 is a breakdown of those activities. While GHN first found natural helpers through interviews with informants, the project gradually augmented the list by creating opportunities for more people to assume helping roles. Additions to the Blue Book were achieved mainly through a "service for service" method. Since no fees were charged for direct counseling, advocacy, or supportive services, persons requesting help were asked to sign in the Blue Book and describe in what way they might help others, as if they had

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Breakdown of Volunteer Involvement (Numbers of Volunteers)* ONGOING

Function

Number

Office staffing

25

Write weekly article for local paper

3

Advisory groups

45

Video-tape assistance

2

ASSISTANCE ON AS-NEEDEDBASIS FOR INDIVIDUALS REQUESTINGHELP Function

Number

Practical assistance

20

Natural helper advisors

9

Service-for-service

15

Emotional support

16 PROJECT-ORIENTED ASSISTANCE

Function

Number

Community friends

20

Delta College project

8

Summer youth group

9

Cinco de Mayo

50

*The numbers do not add up to a total of all volunteers, since many people served in several different volunteering capacities.

come in as volunteers. This technique became an important part of the program: it recognized the significance of reciprocity in the helping process, and addressed the need for people to perceive themselves as able to give, even as they must ask for help. During the second year, 15

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persons became active helpers in this way. In addition, this approach was used with two special groups: chronically mentally disabled and juvenile offenders. The project arranged community service alternatives to sentencing for seven juveniles in cooperation with County Probation, and worked with the new Galt Police Juvenile Officer in implementing this method of diversion on a city level. The project assisted nine mentally-disabled persons in finding volunteer and paid jobs in Gait as a means of helping to integrate them more fully into the community. The variety of natural helping roles stimulated by the project defies easy summary. In addition to "service for service" the following forms were evident: 1. Natural Helper Advisors: Staff members received consultation from certain people who had been identified as informal "experts" about certain populations within the community. Sometimes these "experts" knew the client in question, and sometimes they simply provided general information. During the second year, these informal experts acted as advisors in 16 cases. They assisted in cases pertaining to single mothers, senior citizens, Mexican-Americans, mentally-disabled, teenagers, grade-school aged children, and the unemployed. They frequently provided information on practical matters, such as child care, housing, jobs, and transportation.

2. Natural Helping Referrals: When appropriate, the project staff linked each person who came for help with another person in the community who had some information or experience with the same problem. This could be someone who had experienced the problem (as frequently occurred in the service-for-service approach}, or who simply had personal knowledge or secondary experience with it. An informal single parents' network developed in this fashion. Other contact persons included senior citizens, young adults, Mexican-Americans, and re-entry women. During the second year, 18 persons were used as Natural Helping Referrals. 3. Working Through Existing Natural Helping Networks: This refers to networks of people who acted as supports for a certain population. Some of these networks have included the Senior Citizens Club, the teachers' aides in the grade schools, the cafeteria workers in the high school. These groups used the services of GHN staff by asking for consultation, and were important in referring clients to the project. Twenty-seven percent of the clients who requested help during the second year were referred by these people.

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4. Community Friends Project: In August of 1980, a program was instituted to bring volunteers from the Galt community to local board and care homes one day a week to provide recreation and companionship to the residents. A core of six volunteers working under the supervision of a project staff member visited two homes over the first eightweek period, and expanded this effort to two more homes after the official project termination. Most of the volunteers were senior citizens and one was a mentally disabled person living in a more independent setting in Gait. The staff also planned to recruit high school students and other community members as the program expanded. Ultimately, it was hoped that the board and care residents who participated would grow to trust the Community Friends enough so that the relationship would continue on excursions outside of the homes. 5. Summer Youth Activity Program: During a ten-week summer period, a project staff member coordinated an activity program two afternoons per week with 20 youngsters aged eight to 15. The program was staffed with nine volunteers. The purpose of the group was to p r o vide recreational and socialization activities for children, some of whom were identified as having behavioral and emotional problems. Volunteers provided general supervision and expertise on special projects. The youth program was also aimed at making the children more aware of their community and its resources and was able to draw almost completely on donations for space and materials. 6. Delta College Adult Education Program: A project staff member organized a group of Gait citizens to assist in the design of an adult education curriculum to be offered through San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton. Courses developed included prevocational training for the mentally and developmentally disabled, English as a Second Language, workshops for re-entry students, basic communication skills, as well as courses from the regular Delta curriculum. Natural Helping Teams These "teams" were composed of groups of persons involved with the life of an individual seeking assistance from the program. The people were assembled under the direction of the G H N director who served as a problem-solving expert. The purpose of the helping teams was to demonstrate to the individual in crisis the number of concerned people in her/his life, and to use the collective skills of the group to provide support for the focal individual. The concept provides a demonstration of the power of cooperative problem solving, and generally results in increased responsibility among group members for providing support (Speck & Attneave, 1973}.

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On five occasions during the first year of the project, the GHN called together the support systems of focal individuals to facilitate a natural helping team meeting. Although three of the five clients who had natural team meetings reported improved communication among support system members and a better and clearer understanding of who was accountable for what services and actions, it was the project's experience that the natural helping team concept had greater potential for success with clients who were already known to several components of the professional helping system. The meetings were not considered to be useful by the larger community. The person requesting help, particularly for emotional problems or family conflicts, was extremely threatened by the notion of a "meeting" including friends, family, neighbors, and professional helpers to discuss his/her problem. In a rural community, "meetings" are viewed with some distrust. Although people tend to know a good deal about each other's private lives, they are not inclined to discuss these matters formally, especially in a group setting. Thus, while the project occasionally met with a client and a friend or family member, or informally linked a client with a natural helper in the community, full-fledged "meetings" did not fit the norms acceptable to the particular community.

Cinco de Mayo In the area of community preventive services, the project staff made use of both the ideas arising from constituency based forums and the person-power resulting from the emergence of volunteers. One of the more successful of the community activities was aimed at providing a sense of belonging and recognition for the community's growing Chicano population. The process began as a typical needs-assessment addressed to the Mexican-American community. The highly flexible constituency-based problem-solving technique allowed room for a different agenda to arise. An open house was held at the project office primarily for the Mexican-American community. Approximately 20 persons attended. As a result of that open house, and of additional information obtained through contacts with several different members of the community, it was decided that a needs assessment process would not he successful in the Mexican-American community. The reasons for this were varied. First, the Latino population of Galt, while substantial, was relatively new, having grown from 3% to 20% in the past ten years. Many Mexican Americans in Gait did not relate to Galt as their primary social center; a large number attended church in a nearby town, and

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most entertainment and recreational opportunities were located in the nearby towns of Stockton, Lodi, or Sacramento. There were two identifiable Mexican-American organizations in Galt, the Concilio, which had just undergone a change in leadership from a Latino director to an Anglo with a predominantly Anglo board; and the Catholic church, which itself was beset by some internal conflict. There were few recognized "leaders" in the community and, in general, people seemed quite reluctant to get together as a g r o u p to identify mental health priorities in the same way that the mainstream community had the summer before. As a result, the project decided to join with three other local agencies in calling a meeting of Gait citizens who might be interested in planning a Gait Cinco de Mayo celebration. This cultural event is an extremely important holiday to the Mexican people, and is celebrated by large festivals in many surrounding towns and cities. Like many small towns, Galt held several festivals during the year, each highlighting a particular segment of the community or service organization. However, the participation of the Mexican-American community in these events had usually been minimal, and none of the events had any significance for the Mexican culture. Thus, for the MexicanAmerican community to sponsor a Cinco de Mayo fiesta was a strong statement of that minority's presence in Galt, a symbol of pride in their culture, and an affirmation of their place in the local scene. The planning and actual occurrence of Cinco de Mayo in Galt was lengthy and difficult. Yet it provided an opportunity for the MexicanAmerican community to pull together toward a goal--and also catalyzed leadership struggles. The project's interest in Cinco de Mayo was to show its support to the Latin community, to make known its services in an informal way, and to learn more about the MexicanAmerican people it aimed to serve. These purposes were met. A Mexican-American member of the Helping Network staff and her husband emerged as the prime movers of the festival and, through their involvement, the Helping Network gained the trust and support of many Mexican Americans who would otherwise not have felt comfortable approaching GHN for help. One of the more surprising side effects:of this effort was the reaction of the "official" sector of the Galt community. The City Council prc~ claimed Cinco de Mayo a city holiday and the festival an official Gait event to be celebrated annually. Other civic organizations such as Jaycees, Senior Citizens, and Boy Scouts participated in the festival. Further, an independent group, called the Galt Latin Organization, was formed to run the actual festival and to set up a scholarship fund that

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would benefit from the profits of the festival. These events, all "firsts" for the Gait Latin community, were catalyzed by the GHN project. Personal relationships were formed to provide a foundation for future work with the Mexican-American people.

Board and Care Residents: Assessing Support Systems One of the original goals of the GHNP was to explore the social support systems of selected mentally disabled board and care residents who were not receiving services from the formal aftercare system, and to determine possible methods to increase their integration into the Galt community. A research consultant worked with project volunteers to train four persons from the Galt community as interviewers. Approximately 40 residents of Galt Board and Care facilities were interviewed to determine their support systems. The findings were presented to a group of persons representing local human service agencies, mental health personnel, County and State Department of Mental Health officials, board and care operators, residents, and local community members. The findings suggested that whether or not board and care residents had an assigned case manager, they were, as a group, low in support from family or community (Parks & Pilisuk, 1981). The presentation led to the development of the Community Friends Program aimed at increasing social participation.

Summary and Discussion Starting with a small budget, a two-year mandate from the county and a basic model of operation, the Gait Helping Network Project proved to be illustrative of the value of community goals relevant to mental health outreach, mental health promotion, and to the quality of community life. The model led to the early formation of an umbrella group which supported a variety of subsequent activities. Constituencybased problem-solving forums enhanced participation and gave voice to previously unarticulated community concerns. These led to activities involving maj or segments of the Galt community. The identification of natural helpers proved an early resource for assistance to clients. Rather than trying to professionalize the already beneficial activities of these natural helpers, the project sought to incorporate them into a wider range of activities and to draw out the helping potential of increasingly broader segments of the population.

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Some outcomes of the project were institutionalized to assure continuation. The Outpatient Resource Center, the Delta College Program, the Cinco de Mayo celebration and the Friendly Visitor Program are examples. Other activities of creative problem solving and of warm and concerned volunteer activities can only be measured by the lasting effects which such activities have upon the participating individuals. Of the various components of the model, some were better actualized in practice than others. In particular, the use of helping teams barely materialized. The reasons for this are related to the success of the one aspect of the model which is most central, i.e., constituency-based problem solving. It was the use of this method which brought to light the values and concerns of various groups and which made the model capable of bending to the contours of the particular community in question. In Galt the rural and ethnic values regarding family privacy concepts, i.e., who might properly be assembled to discuss the problems of a distressed individual, mitigated against the use of helping teams as a customary practice. Similarly the model permitted a gradual evolution of the form of the interagency advisory group from unorganized constituency groups to the Citizens' Steering Committee. One other major component of the program, identification and use of natural leaders, worked well and provided the resource power behind a number of successful activities. In projects aiming to exert an impact upon a whole community rather than upon a single target population one finds elements of pre~ vention at work at various levels. The ethnic awareness and recognition through Cinco de Mayo and the Delta College opportunities are focused upon primary prevention. Service-for-service practices typicaUy involved a secondary prevention focus, while elements of tertiary prevention could be observed in the Outpatient Resource Center, the network teams assembled to deal with family crises, and the Friendly Visitor Program. The problems of assessing programs which provide preventive services or services intended to promote mental health or to improve the quality of life, are formidable. However, certain outcomes of the Galt Helping Network Project and its unique synthesis of direct service and broader community approaches are obvious. Scores of individuals who had talents to assess needs and plan services were given an opportunity to do so. Others were identified whose capacities for assistance to individuals were utilized and given recognition in a variety of helping roles. Community people were trained to assess needs of their more isolated board and care residents, and some responsive program developments followed. The city gave formal recognition to its Mexican-

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American population through a celebration. People with a service to volunteer were brought together with others who needed the service, and counseling was provided to individuals in need without fees, incorporating natural or informal helpers where appropriate. None can say how many cases of psychotic breakdown, child abuse, or criminal behavior may have been prevented. But a more cohesive and helping community has developed. This was no small achievement.

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Schon, D. A. Network-related intervention. Paper prepared for the ' Network Development Staff, National Institute of Education, Washington, DC, March, 1977. Speck, R., & Attneave, C. Family networks. New York: Pantheon, 1973. Stoller, E. P. Growing old in the country: The role of informal support networks. Paper presented at annual meeting of Rural Sociological Society, Burlington, VT, August, 1979. U.S. Bureau of Statistics, 1979.