This paper documents the experiences of a group of parents who came together to form a human service cooperative in their local community to address the needs of their adult children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each parent felt that their child's needs were not (or could not be) met by existing providers. Parent leaders who…

With Washington trapped in budget battles and partisan gridlock, cities have emerged as the best source of government innovation. Nowhere is this more visible than in New York City. Since taking office in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg has introduced a steady stream of innovative policies, from a competition to recruit a new applied sciences campus and a…

Conducted survey of 107 federally-funded independent living centers to obtain information about services provided to people with mental retardation, mental illness, traumatic head injury, and cognitive disabilities associated with aging. Found that most centers provided services to at least one of four groups; a substantial number of centers did…

This paper describes the development of the National Skill Standards for Community Based Human Service Practitioners and reports on a survey of states' training and certification requirements. The standards are grouped into 12 broad competency areas: (1) participant empowerment; (2) communication; (3) assessment; (4) community and service…

A survey of 133 Illinois direct service providers across various agencies indicated that providers are committed to serving youth with emotional/behavioral disorders locally, but perceived a lack of effort to eliminate ineffective programs and identified procedural barriers to providing comprehensive community-based services. A wide variety of…

Current trends in mental retardation services in Massachusetts were investigated using the New England region, the state of Michigan, and the United States as comparative frames of reference. Massachusetts' movement toward reducing reliance on state institutions, reallocating funding, and developing community services and family support is…

Differences in service utilization and community adjustment between community mental health clients with and without substance abuse disorders were studied for 144 outpatients, 37 percent of whom had dual diagnoses (substance abuse and another disorder). The association of dual diagnosis with poor service use and adjustment is discussed. (SLD)

Studied preferences for family versus nonfamily sources of care for the elderly. Preference for family as the primary source of care was found to be independent of age, cohort, gender, education, and marital status, but significantly associated with race. Implications for age stratification theory and family functioning are discussed. (Author)

Examines a youth service bureau over a 20-year period, with a total client population of some 47,000 during this period. Findings indicate that this agency maintained its emphasis on diversion of juveniles from the traditional juvenile justice system not because of funding agency pressure, but because diversion is sound policy. (LKS)

Adult day care, a community-based group program designed to meet the needs of functionally impaired adults through an individual plan of care, is being considered by many communities seeking care options for their most frail and functionally impaired adults. In 1969 there were only a dozen adult day care centers in the United States, today there…

Providing comprehensive services for the elderly in local communities presents planners and potential users with a complex set of problems. The development of new or expanded service to the elderly was examined within an ecologically informed resource dependency model to assess the effect on service expansion of organizational maintenance factors…

Results are reported of a study to determine the effects of detoxification centers on the people who use their services. A detoxification center is "a social rehabilitation facility established for the purpose of facilitating access into care and rehabilitation by detoxifying and evaluating the person and providing entrance into the continuum…

Research has found a strong relationship between aggregate economic indicators and the number of individuals receiving services from mental health facilities. To examine the relationship between macroeconomics and health, the broad utilization patterns and demographic information on the aggregate number of individuals using the mental health…

Evaluation research, if appropriately matched to a human service program's stage of development, can help inform the decision making at each step. The developmental stages of a program, questions to be answered at each stage, and kinds of research activities pertinent to such questions are discussed. (TJH)

A survey was conducted of the number and needs of adults with mental retardation or other developmental disabilities (MR/DD) currently waiting for community services. Survey data were obtained for 46 states and the District of Columbia. Respondents included directors of state mental retardation/developmental disabilities programs, state…