Abstract
A recent visit to Wisconsin, USA, as the guest of Professor Leonard Stein, provided the author with an opportunity for greater understanding of the whole-hearted approach pioneered in Dane County to the care and treatment of people who suffer as a consequence of severe mental illness. Beginning in the 1960's, systematic service developments from the Mendota State Hospital and the University of Wisconsin in Madison have resulted in “the Madison model” that has encouraged a world wide reformation. “The Copernican Revolution” in mental health services occurs when care and treatment are made to revolve around the recipient, instead of requiring the person either to move through revolving doors to obtain help or to be required to live in long stay institutions out of sight and out of mind. Some of the paradoxes and problems in applying this mode of working are discussed.