Social ecology of supervised communal facilities for mentally disabled adults: VI. Initial social adaptation

The social adaptation of mentally disabled adults introduced to two new vocational rehabilitation settings was investigated. Client behavior was observed for 8 weeks after placement in an evaluation center and for an additional 8 weeks in subsequent workshop settings. During the evaluation period, clients' sociability increased with time in the program. In the later workshop placements, the social milieu rather than time in the program influenced the degree of client sociability. Specifically, in the first 2 weeks of workshop placement, clients placed in Workshop A, which had a more sociable milieu, remained at the high levels of sociability, similar to the last weeks in the evaluation phase. In contrast, clients placed in Workshop B showed a decline in sociability, which was related to environmental variables. Clients initially affiliated more with other clients they knew during evaluation, but this tendency decreased as they became integrated into the workshop program.