The behavioral and social ecology of community houses.

A small community home model for severely and profoundly mentally retarded adults is defined in terms of its program orientation, program structure, and program procedures. The model is compared to institutional settings and larger community units by collection of two data sets. The small homes were found to produce beneficial client functioning and high levels of staff/client interaction appropriately related to clients' degree of mental retardation. How staff distributed their attention to clients differed between the three types of settings. A conclusion is offered that the quality of residential care is dependent on the interaction of variables rather than on the presence of any single overridingly powerful factor.