Resident behaviors and characteristics as determinants of quality of residential care: an observational study

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities Vol. 19; no. 3; pp. 261 - 273
• Main Authors: Seys, Daniel, Duker, Pieter, Salemink, Wineke, Franken-Wijnhoven, Jolanda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Ltd 01.05.1998; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Analysis of Variance; Attendants; Attention; Attitude of Health Personnel; Behavior Problems; Biological and medical sciences; Caregivers - psychology; Communication; Communication Problems; Custodial Care - psychology; Data Collection - methods; Female; Humans; Individual Characteristics; Intellectual Disability - rehabilitation; Male; Medical sciences; Mental health; Middle Aged; Motor Skills; Netherlands; Observer Variation; Organization of mental health. Health systems; Performance Factors; Physical Mobility; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Quality Assurance, Health Care - standards; Quality Indicators, Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Regression Analysis; Residential Care; Residential Facilities - standards; Residential Programs; Residential Treatment - standards; Sampling Studies; Severe Mental Retardation; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Stereotyped Behavior; Netherlands; Human; Quality; Intellectual deficiency; Developmental disorder; Behavior; Institution; Health staff patient relation; Mental retardation; Public health; Care; Communication
• DOI: 10.1016/S0891-4222(98)00007-9
• ISSN: 0891-4222

The effects of resident behaviors and resident characteristics on the quantity and quality of care they receive from direct-care staff was examined. Four hundred and fifty-two residents with severe and profound mental retardation and 416 direct care staff members were involved. Naturalistic observations were conducted on direct-care staff behavior, that is, staff-resident initiatives, staff affection, staff communicative behavior, on resident behaviors (i.e., maladaptive, stereotypic, and adaptive behavior, position, attending, and communicative behavior), and on resident characteristics (i.e., gender, age, ambulancy, sensory handicaps, and seizure disorder). By importance, residents’ ambulancy/motoric skills, their communicative behavior, and attending behavior accounted for the greatest differences in the quality and quantity of the care they receive from direct-care staff. Given that certain resident characteristics can be ameliorated through training, residents themselves may control, to a certain extent, the care they receive from direct-care staff in residential facilities.