A practical staff management package for use in a training program for persons with developmental disabilities.
A staff management package was investigated for increasing and maintaining behavioral training skills of direct-care staff. Behaviors of three direct-care staff members were monitored while they conducted a prevocational program with 27 adult clients with severe or profound mental retardation. The intervention was an easy-to-apply checklist used weekly by a supervisor to give feedback to direct-care staff. The management procedure did not require the supervisor to collect quantitative data to be graphed or charted. Use of the checklist during a weekly morning work session in a multiple-baseline design across subjects led to immediate improvement in staff performance during daily morning work sessions. Considerable generalization of improved staff performance to daily afternoon work sessions with a different client group occurred. Further increases in staff performance occurred when the management procedure was added to afternoon work sessions. Staff performance was maintained over 4 months after the management procedure was decreased from weekly to biweekly use. When performance of direct-care staff improved, on-task behavior of most clients also substantially increased. Direct-care staff preferred the staff management package compared to "traditional" methods of supervision, and the training unit adopted the checklist for continuous use at the conclusion of the study.
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
E R
ER
Hrydowy
G L
GL
Martin
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D004493:Education; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012112:Residential Facilities; D000078329:Workforce