Toward meaningful family involvement in out-of-home placement settings

In this paper we have attempted to heighten awareness that meaningful family involvement must be part of program planning for community residential services. The family can be a powerful resource for social support, guidance, and advocacy for individuals with mental retardation living out of the natural home. The dilemma is that investigators have found disappointingly low levels of family involvement. A prospective look at family involvement in the post P.L. 94-142 era, however, suggests that parents who are highly involved with services for their child preplacement may be primed for considerable involvement postplacement. We argued that personnel in placement settings, in part because of carprovider ambivalence toward parents, may not be ready for more family involvement. Recommendations for policy makers and service providers to enhance family involvement were made.