Evaluation of a combined "hands-on" and videotape training package used to teach direct care staff in an Intermediate Care Facility to conduct daily activities for profoundly mentally retarded persons indicated staff performance improved after the training and was maintained at three-week follow-up. (Author/DB)

Investigated four kinds of community-based housing and case-managed home care programs for associations with subsequent institutional utilization. Analyses of institutional placement rates and days indicated that significant effects of housing and case-managed home care services were limited to elderly in the high institutional-risk group.…

Treatment of mentally retarded persons with psychotropic and anticonvulsant drugs is discussed in terms of drug classification, rationale for use, attitudes toward use, and clinical research findings. The literature on neuroleptic, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, and cerebral stimulant drugs is summarized. Controversial reports that some medications…

Describes the experientially determined problems of long-term mentally disabled women. Reviews of 320 hospital records of patients in hospitals throughout Michigan showed significant sex differences for client age, marital status, living arrangement, diagnosis, functioning level, voluntary/involuntary status, admission information, medications,…

Interview data on families with children multiply admitted to residential care were contrasted with data from a disadvantaged comparison sample. Members of the in-care group were twice as likely as those in the comparison group to have parenting problems and were distinguished as much by other kinds of family difficulties as by parenting problems…

A nationwide study of costs of U.S. institutional care between fiscal years 1977 and 1984 identified major trends: a plateau in adjusted total nationwide spending for institutional operations, a decline in adjusted nationwide spending for institutions from state revenue sources, and emergence of the federal government as an equal partner in…

The study confirmed previous research indicating that workshop training by itself is an ineffective method of increasing direct care staff compliance to treatment prescriptions, and that providing direct staff supervisors with a training and management tool (prescriptive checklists) may be an effective alternative for serving multihandicapped…

The paper reviews research on behavioral staff management strategies in institutions for developmentally disabled persons, considering procedural effectiveness of four approaches: antecedent, contingency management, self-control, and multifaceted interventions. Methodological problems in the research are noted, along with needs for research on…

Discusses the use of prescribed psychotropic drugs among the mentally retarded. Analyzes data on over 7,000 retarded adolescents to empirically test a proposed model of drug use. Suggests that interventions should provide needed changes in the individual's social environment as well as psychological and medical care. (CMG)

One issue that has concerned investigators in recent years has been alcoholics' perception of their ability to control events that affect them. The current study investigated the relationship of locus of control scores to dropping out of treatment at various stages. Results are discussed. (Author)

This investigation examined the relationship between self-reported fears on the Wolpe-Lang Fear Survey Schedule and scores on the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) among hospitalized male veterans and evaluated the effects of threat of failure and loss of self-esteem on the electrodermal activity of 32 male college students classified as high…

The consumer behaviors of 22 adult institutionalized retarded clients in a sheltered workshop token economy were evaluated by changing prices in the workshop store. (Author/DB)

Explores the interrelationships of two measures, based on the Hutt Adaptation of the Bender Gestalt Test (HABGT), of psychopathology and of perceptual adience-abience with two different populations: hospitalized schizoprenics and out patient psychotherapy patients. Schizophrenics were found to be higher in severity of psychopathology and lower in…

Presents the edited transcripts of some of the discussions authors held over the past year with a 26-year-old man labeled mentally retarded by his family, school teachers, and others in his life. (Author/AM)