THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF COMMUNITY HOUSES

A small community home model for severely and profoundly mentally reta rded adults is defined in terms of its program orientation, program st ructure, and program procedures. The model is compared to institutiona l settings and larger community units by collection of two data sets. The small homes were found to produce beneficial client functioning an d high levels of staff/client interaction appropriately related to cli ents' degree of mental retardation. How staff distributed their attent ion to clients differed between the three types of settings. A conclus ion is offered that the quality of residential care is dependent on th e interaction of variables rather than on the presence of any single o verridingly powerful factor.