© British Association of Social Workers
Life-styles of Severely Retarded Non-communicating Adults in Hospitals and Small Residential Homes
Sally A. Rawlings taught mentally handicapped children in Sri Lanka before returning to England to complete the M.A. course in Psychology of Mental Handicap at Keele University. She then joined the MRC Social Psychiatry Unit as a member of the mental handicap research team. She is currently living abroad.
Summary
Comparisons were made of the care practices of the staff, organization and management, physical environment and activities of the residents of three hospital wards and three small non-hospital residential homes for mobile, severely or profoundly retarded adults with disturbed behaviour. Although, overall, compared with the wards, the small homes had better staff ratios, markedly more staff autonomy, resident oriented care practices, occupations and leisure pursuits and their residents were more often engaged in simple constructive activities, there were differences among the individual units, especially the wards. The results showed that, even within a rigidly run insititution, the initiatives of individuals in charge of the living unit can have an appreciable positive effect upon the residents' life-styles.