This practical staff development guide aims to help senior managers, practitioners and others, including placing authorities, to evaluate the quality of provision made for children and young people in residential special schools and secure care accommodation services. It highlights effective ways in which services can fully support some of…

This study examined issues of communicative control for residential program staff and eight individuals with deaf-blindness and mental retardation. For six of the subjects, communication was initiated and dominated by others in the environment. Rate of communication with other residents and visitors was extremely low. Implications for…

Residential care must be redefined, free from jargon and rhetoric. Over the past 20 years, the social welfare approach, which encompasses the medical model, has dominated legislative and practical thinking about residential care. This theoretical thinking reached its culmination in the concept of the therapeutic community. The therapeutic…

Board games called Games of Rapport are being developed at the University of Alberta. The first, "Angels and Devils," is designed for play by nursing home residents. Results of a study involving "Angels and Devils" show that board games are useful in communicating rehabilitative objectives and sources of conflict. (Author/BEF)

Physical aggression among institutionalized mentally retarded persons arouses great social concern. To examine the effectiveness of four-point mechanical restraints and a positive adaptive symbol program in the reduction of high frequency, high intensity aggression, three institutionalized severely mentally retarded adolescents (2 females, 1 male)…

A widespread bias exists among legal, medical, and social service professionals that the appropriate placement for elderly individuals with cognitive impairment (dementia) is a nursing home. Two major reasons for institutionalization are to remove the patient from a potentially harmful situation and to relieve the family of the burden of care.…

Focusing on the way marginalization or "exclusion" from school is experienced by children in English foster/residential care and the professionals working with them, this book shows how a reflective understanding of the complex school exclusion process can be applied to both child welfare practice and policy. By drawing on the personal…

This article presents the argument that overregulation of Medicaid-funded residential treatment environments has placed rules ahead of contingency-based behavior of clients. Blame is focused on coercive enforcement of inaccurate rules, precluding responsive staff action. Solutions are advanced to encourage natural contingencies of teaching and…

Analysis of the 1977 and 1985 National Nursing Home Surveys with respect to residents with mental retardation found little change in the size of the population; resident characteristics (such as other disabling conditions and functional limitations and primary source of payment); and level of services received. Challenges in implementing Public…

This final report describes a project to revise a 60-hour postsecondary course for activity coordinators in long-term care facilities in Iowa, to train instructors to teach the curriculum, and to evaluate that training. Introductory material includes the following: a summary sheet on how course competencies were identified, how the materials were…

A Special Behavior Unit provided short-term residential treatment to persons with mental retardation who displayed severe maladaptive behavior. Program evaluation data indicated decreases in frequency of targeted behaviors during clients' residence. Post-discharge follow-up data indicated that 40 percent showed at least adequate adjustment and…

Residential specialists (N=759) in public and private facilities for mentally retarded adults were surveyed to identify the skills that they consider essential for mentally retarded adults to function in different residential settings (unsupervised apartment, supervised apartment, and group home). Significant differences were found among settings…

This paper explores historical and recent trends in the delivery of residential adolescent substance abuse treatment, looking specifically at the impact of managed care on the service delivery system. Three historical eras are conceptualized by the authors: (1) an era prior to managed care in which services were provided on a fee for service basis…

This study evaluated two methods of presenting a videotaped lesson on the care of residents with low vision to 87 staff at long-term care facilities. Both versions of the videotape, one which presented information in a narrative format and one which used text overlay to highlight ideas, were equally effective. (Author/JDD)

This coursebook is intended for use by the instructors presenting a workshop on preventing injuries in the elderly that was developed as a field test of a larger 10-module training program for staff of long-term health care facilities, senior center and adult day care staff, and home health aides. The curriculum guide served as a blueprint for the…