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A hallmark of therapeutic work at The Menninger Foundation built into the conceptualization of total treatment strategies within a sanatorium setting has always been the involvement of the patient's family in the treatment structure. As has been described (see pp. 71-72), with the initial evaluation of the prospective patient, some significant relative (usually the spouse, a parent, or an adult child) is involved in the evaluation process from the very start—both as the provider of a comprehensive family and situational history, and as a participant, along with the patient, in the final conference where the overall findings and recommendations are conveyed to them and joint planning for the prospective treatment is engaged in. For those patients then taken into treatment at The Menninger Foundation, especially for those who are concomitantly hospitalized or have other lifemanaging involvements (day hospital, foster home, etc.), ongoing social casework involvement with the family is ordinarily set up. If the patient has come from Topeka or its environs (or is moving to Topeka along with his or her family), this is usually set up on a regularly scheduled basis. If the patient has come to Topeka for treatment while the family remains behind in a distant locale, the social work contact is via fairly frequent letters, supplemented as need be by phone calls, plus a regular schedule of periodic visits by the responsible or concerned family member(s)