While only sixteen students were graduated with associate degrees as mental health workers in 1968, it is estimated that there will be seventeen thousand such graduates in 1976. Little evaluation of this mental health movement has been done, although experiments have shown the ability of paraprofessionals to accept new levels of responsibility and to undertake psychotherapy. They have been particularly successful in group therapy of all kinds. Professionals who have supervised paraprofessional workers have noted the therapeutic efficacy resulting from their enthusiasm and capacity to relate, as well as their unexpected ability to handle clinical crises.