Family involvement in residential treatment.
Social policy stresses the importance of the family's continuing involvement with members in residential placement. We studied involvement of families with 163 children and adults in residential treatment and with their programs. Parent and staff reports of family involvement showed high agreement. The average family had 21 contacts annually with the family members; these related only marginally to the extent of involvement with the residents' programs. There was no evidence of detachment, a lessening of involvement over time. Multiple regression found three variables that accounted for 52% of the variance in contacts: higher involvement related to less distance from the facility, greater expectations that the family member would return home, and lower levels of mental retardation. Implications of findings for increasing family involvement were discussed.
Baker
B L
BL
University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Blacher
J
J
Pfeiffer
S I
SI
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000628:therapy*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014789:Visitors to Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*