The authors undertook a study to appraise community services available to children of mentally ill parents and found that such services, although well-intentioned, sophisticated, and dedicated, were 'fragmented, time-limited, crises-oriented, and uncoordinated'. With financial support from NIMH and encouragement from the Department of Maternal and Child Health of Boston and the Health and Welfare Commissioners of Massachusetts, they investigated families with a mentally ill parent to determine a number of points: the nature of child care problems; the problems already existing in these families and the effect of the mental illness in creating or influencing the problems; the needs that were being met normally through community resources; how to find the most effective ways of applying community health and welfare services to the families and children during the crisis period and subsequent to this period when the ill parent requires re-assimilation into the