Down stairs that are never your own: supporting people with developmental disabilities in their own homes

Supported living for people with developmental disabilities challenges many common service policies, practices, and assumptions. Until recently, professionals assumed that such people who did not reside with their families needed to live in some kind of service facility. Today, a growing number of people with developmental disabilities have challenged this assumption by living, with personalized support, in their own homes. Meeting this challenge calls for new relationships among people receiving support, those who provide support, and families that are focused on assisting people with developmental disabilities to establish a sense of place, security of place, and effective personalized control over their homes and the assistance they require.