A Comparison of the Health Status of Residents of Sheltered Care Facilities in Monmouth County, New Jersey

Abstract

In the past 20 to 30 years the number of sheltered care facilities in the United States has risen dramatically. Serving what many consider to be marginal populations, they are often poorly regulated or unregulated, with little or no attention to the health of residents. A retrospective record review of 647 clients residing in boarding homes, rooming houses, a homeless shelter, and residential facilities in Monmouth County, New Jersey, suggested that whereas some differences exist among facilities in terms of clients' physical and psychosocial health problems, these differences may not be meaningful. Since New Jersey regulations require some minimal health supervision to be provided by residential facilities but not by the others, these results suggest that regulations of the other facilities should be revised to reflect better the needs and problems of the populations they serve.