A perspective on the brief hospitalization of whole families

This paper reviews our experiences as an interdisciplinary team treating entire families who live in our hospital apartments. Over 100 families have now been treated. The therapeutic effort is based on the expectation that families have the capacity to employ staff support and skills, to solve problems and move competently through transitions of increasing complexity. We have found that it is essential to capitalize on the crisis that hospitalization entails in order to help families take more effective charge of their own lives.