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THE onrush of the new community psychiatry makes it essential to give renewed consideration to the predicament of state hospitals. Not only do they continue to suffer from social isolation but also a destructive rift exists between them and community psychiatric facilities. Recently, Dr. Walter E. Barton1 described this aspect as follows: State-operated institutions are not integrated with community resources. Community-operated facilities seldom develop closer relationships with mental hospitals. In reality, no treatment continuum exists. Furthermore, responsible state-hospital men, conscious of the disparity between their responsibilities and resources, apprehensively anticipate further depletion of their competent staff members and increased demands . . .