Living conditions of an adult population with Down's syndrome

The living conditions of 38 patients with Down's Syndrome in the Danish county of Aarhus were investigated. All patients were born January 1, 1934 to December 31, 1943. The mean age on July 1, 1984 was 45.7 years, 23 patients (60.5%) were male, 15 (39.5%) female. On census day, December 31, 1984, 82% lived in institutions, 13% in private homes (parents/siblings), and 5% in sheltered residences with other mentally handicapped patients. Out of the 31 institutionalized patients, 21 (68%) lived in old-style institutions. The rest lived in hostels or nursing homes. During part of or the whole year of 1984, 23 (61%) patients worked in sheltered workshops. Seven (18%) had no daily occupation during 1984, and the rest had some sort of occupation. Twenty-seven patients (71%) attended evening classes during 1984, and 36 patients (95%) attended some type of recreation or entertainment in the same year. More than half of the patients got outside their permanent residence at least twice a week (work excluded). During 1984, 27 out of 33 patients living in institutions or in sheltered residences got an average of 15.3 visits, and an averaged 16.7 phone-calls were made to the staff to hear about the well being of 15 out of the 33 patients.