A study of the relationship of community living situation to independence and satisfaction in the lives of mentally retarded adults

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This study examined the relationship between the level of supervision provided at the community residences of 61 adults with mental retardation and their sense of independence and satisfaction in specific aspects of home life, work and community activity. Responses given to interview questions were transformed into scores for independence and satisfaction for each subject. In order to compare the relationship of supervision at home, an individual's intellectual functional ability, and his social support to independence and satisfaction, non‐parametric analyses of the data were performed. These revealed statistically significant inverse relationships between the degree of home supervision and independence both at home and within the community, and satisfaction at home. Greater functional ability was found not to be significantly related to any measures of independence or satisfaction. A high level of social support was correlated only with overall measures of community independence, satisfaction at home, and community satisfaction.

The relationship between living arrangement and adherence to antiepileptic medications among individuals with developmental disabilities

“…Higher rates of AED adherence were found among those living in group homes, all of which are monitored by licensing agencies that require documentation of medication administration and errors (Department of Social Services 2008). Group homes have a highly regulated supervisory structure (Legault 1992;Velligan et al 2009). Less restrictive living arrangements (semi-independent or family homes) do not generally provide the same degree of supervision.…”