The paper describes the residential services provided by Washington County (Vermont) to people with developmental disabilities, especially "professional foster homes" and supervised apartments. The professional foster homes serve 40 clients with severe disabilities who live with families in the community. There are three support staff;…

This paper presents an example of "optimistic research," a qualitative approach which focuses on positive interventions helpful to practitioners, in this case an examination of programs successfully integrating people with severe disabilities. The study evaluated 40 programs through site visits which focus on observation, interviews, and…