The impact of environmental factors on outcome in residential programs

Although community residential placements are among the leading areas of program expansion for the chronic mentally ill, they have been designed without scientifically validated models. The author reviews the literature on the impact of residential environment on the course of serious mental illness. In most studies, environmental variables were better predictors of outcome than were patient variables. This overall finding suggests the value of further research on environment and the importance of applying the results to program development.