Family involvement in residential treatment

Social policy stresses the importance of the family's continuing involvement with members in residential placement. We studied involvement of families with 163 children and adults in residential treatment and with their programs. Parent and staff reports of family involvement showed high agreement. The average family had 21 contacts annually with the family members; these related only marginally to the extent of involvement with the residents' programs. There was no evidence of detachment, a lessening of involvement over time. Multiple regression found three variables that accounted for 52% of the variance in contacts: higher involvement related to less distance from the facility, greater expectations that the family member would return home, and lower levels of mental retardation. Implications of findings for increasing family involvement were discussed.