The relationship of staff:client ratios, interactions, and residential placement

The behavior of staff and persons with severe handicaps was surveyed in nine settings, including four traditional institutions, three large community-based units, and two groups of small homes. Data were collected that established the relationship among staff:client interactions, client responding, and the size of staff:client groups. The latter showed that the institutions were characterized by larger client and staff groups than the large community units. Large client and staff groups were virtually absent in the small homes. Two general conclusions could be drawn about the relationship between staff:client ratios and client behavior: (a) when one or two staff were together, improvements in the level of the staff interactions and client adaptive functioning occurred as the client group decreased in size and the staff size remained constant; (b) improvement in staff performance and client behavior arising from the addition of staff to a client group of a given size was marginal or nonexistent. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for the design of residential environments.