Effects of resettlement on people with learning disabilities

This article describes a small-scale study of the quality of life for people with learning disabilities after moving from a large group home with institutional features to community settings. The Life Experiences Checklist was chosen to provide objective measures of their quality of life before and after the move, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to gain a more personal view of their life satisfaction. The results showed that the overall quality of life for the service users improved following resettlement. In particular, the home environment, leisure facilities, freedom and opportunities for service users had all increased significantly. Participants also reported having more choices and were more likely to take part in leisure and household activities. However, the range and quality of personal relationships experienced by the service users showed slight but not significant changes. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and the importance of quality evaluation is considered.