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

Abstract

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.