title: The environment as a support system for independent living.
abstract: In extended interviews and visits with 150 physically disabled young adults living independently in Berkeley, CA, the author studied the environment as they experienced it and evaluated its accommodation to their special needs. The environment in this study is considered in physical and psychosocial terms, that is, as a support system for the multifaceted needs of the whole person. The framework for organizing the data was Mayer Spivak's construct of "archetypal place" in which he defines 13 fundamental places in terms of the behaviors they support: shelter, sleep, mate, groom, feed, excrete, store, territory, play, route, meet, compete, and work. For purposes of the present work, shelter and mate are discussed--shelter, because of the clarity of its relationship between existence and physical form, and mate because of its more abstract relevance to physical form.
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D003153:Community Health Services; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000639:trends*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D014481:United States