Abstract
Family care is and always has been the dominant residential arrangement for persons with mental retardation. The vast majority of persons with mental retardation live with their families, many for their entire lives. According to national estimates, fewer than 20% of the U.S. population with mental retardation live in any form of out-of-home placement, institutional or community-based (Fujiura, Garza, & Braddock, 1989; Lakin, 1985). While the risk of out-of-home placement increases with advancing age (Meyers, Borthwick, & Eyman, 1985), the rate of placement even in adulthood is not high. However, public policy initiatives and public resources have been directed primarily toward those who live away from their family home, which has reduced the visibility of family-based care. Although the desirability of family-based care for adults with retardation is not a matter about which all policy makers and advocates have agreed, it remains the single most common residential arrangement and, therefore, warrants our attention as we project ahead to the year 2000.
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Seltzer, M.M. (1992). Family Caregiving Across the Full Life Span. In: Rowitz, L. (eds) Mental Retardation in the Year 2000. Disorders of Human Learning, Behavior, and Communication. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9115-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9115-9_6
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