A National Council on Social Work Education project to develop, test, and evaluate models for continuing education in five social work education programs is described. Its aim is to demonstrate how the education and practice systems can work together, and to focus on mental health care delivery system issues as a whole. Five pilot projects in Alabama, Illinois, Philadelphia, Utah, and Virginia are reported. Alabama's program focused on statewide education in management for directors and other management staff in community and state mental health facilities. The Illinois project was an experimental laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle to make continuing education more responsive to practice. Philadelphia's program emphasized the training of outreach workers in three centers. The Utah "Explorations in Living" program was designed to teach parenting skills to high school students. Virginia's program was an ongoing one for leadership in Richmond mental health services, and for lay members and staff of community mental health and retardation boards. A concluding essay discusses the process of continuing education within a collaborative framework. Four areas of learning are identified for special attention: institutional change and how it affects delivery systems; interdisciplinary learning; the learning/teaching transaction, and the unique role of the continuing education educator; and innovation and flexibility in teaching. Appended are a list of participants and a list of practice systems and educational institutions represented at a Chicago workshop in 1976. (MSE)