In early 1966, the Denver Department of Health and Hospitals embarked upon a city-wide, decentralized health program in an effort to provide familycentered “team” health care to 100,000 medically indigent patients. The program encompasses 28 different clinics and facilities with wide variations in hours of service. Factors hindering or influencing the final pattern of health care delivery included; federal funding agencies' guidelines and biases; grossly underestimated health care demands by an unlimited population load; differences among family members for facility, hours of service, and health care provider; difficulties in the recruitment of scaree health professionals; academic specialization and disease orientation of physicians; 30-50 per cent annual turnover in nursing staff, and inherent limitations in neighborhood aide role definition. After experimenting with many different patterns of team care and leadership, a workable model emerged using the combination of a neighborhood aide and a backup social worker as the basic core for family-centered health care. The social worker is responsible for forming a flexible “health team” to meet the needs of a particular family. A central social service register, decentralization of personnel, and constant administrative support arc essential. Experience indicates that 45 per cent of our program families require and benefit from this approach. Many do not require nor will accept such a total effort.