Development and evaluation of the Active Treatment Client Rights Checklist

The role of active treatment has been recognized as vital to the habilitation of persons with mental retardation; however, evaluating the provision of active treatment has been difficult. This study describes the development of the Active Treatment Client Rights checklist (ATCR), which was designed to facilitate the assessment, monitoring, and implementation of readily observable client active treatment services. This investigation provides an explanation of item content, initial reliability data (Phase I), and the results of implementation of the ATCR over a 2-year period in an ICF/MR facility with 29 living units serving nearly 500 clients (Phase II). The ATCR is highly reliable, valid, and useful in enhancing staff provision of active treatment. The most sensitive indicator of active treatment was shown to be related to frequency of functional interactions between clients and staff.