Assessing perceived agency adherence to the values of community inclusion: implications for staff satisfaction.

Measures of staff members' knowledge (N = 518) of the values of community inclusion, perception of agency adherence to community inclusion, and satisfaction with relevant components of their jobs were developed. Staff represented 130 agencies in a state-wide program of individualized community living supports for adults with developmental and/or mental disabilities. Results suggest relatively high levels of knowledge about values of inclusion and perceived agency adherence to the inclusion philosophy among employees regarding the need to provide individuals who have disabilities with opportunities for engaging in community daily activities and their rights for services. Employees, however, had significantly less knowledge of and noted less agency adherence to activities intended to provide consumers with opportunities to make choices. Staff who perceived more agency adherence to the philosophy of inclusion were more satisfied with their jobs.

Advocate development in the field of developmental disabilities: a data-based conceptual model.

We proposed a taxonomy of advocate development in the field of developmental disabilities derived from the systematic evaluation of a Partners in Policymaking program. Three developmental stages evolved: beginner, involved, and activist. Self-reports of advocacy actions and outcomes were collected from 3 participants with disabilities and 21 parents before and during training. A follow-up, semi-structured telephone interview was conducted 5 months after training ended. Results indicate significant improvements in the number of actions and outcomes reported by all participants. The activist group had the largest gains in actions and outcomes; they reported twice as many outcomes as did the other participants. The implications of the proposed taxonomy for participants' recruitment in advocacy training programs were discussed.

Attitudes of community-living staff members toward persons with mental retardation, mental illness, and dual diagnosis.

Attitudes of 340 staff members in 120 community living programs for people with mental retardation, mental illness, and dual diagnosis and a comparison sample of 152 community members were assessed using the Community Living Attitudes Scale, a measure of attitudes toward inclusion. Results showed that community agency supervisory and managerial staff held more favorable attitudes toward community living philosophy. Community support staff who worked with people who have mental retardation saw that population as less similar to other people than did the comparison sample and were less likely to endorse exclusion of persons with mental retardation than were those in the comparison sample. Retrospective analyses showed that training in inclusion philosophy was related to more inclusive, empowering attitudes among staff members.

The Community Living Attitudes Scale, Mental Retardation Form: development and psychometric properties.

We described the development and psychometric properties of the Community Living Attitudes Scale, Mental Retardation Form (CLAS-MR), a 40-item measure based on the input of self-advocates and focused on contemporary community living philosophies. The CLAS-MR, which consists of four subscales that tap attitudes about people with mental retardation, demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, retest reliability, and construct validity with samples of 104 college students and 283 community members. Using data from a sample of 355 staff members from community agencies, we confirmed the factor structure of the measure. Given the importance of attitudes toward persons with mental retardation in policy making and community inclusion, the CLAS-MR can help chronicle the diffusion of the new paradigm of empowered community living for persons with mental retardation.

A contextual-behavioral model of empowerment: case studies involving people with physical disabilities.

When people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, older adults, women, and others lack power, they usually experience adverse conditions disproportionate to other members of society. Empowerment--the process by which people gain some control over valued events, outcomes, and resources--is an important construct for understanding and improving the lives of people of marginal status. This manuscript presents a contextual-behavioral model of empowerment and its application in collaborative research with people with physical disabilities. The eight case studies illustrate 18 tactics for promoting empowerment that flow from the model. The case studies show the use of different combinations of empowerment tactics in a variety of contexts: (a) setting improvement agendas from the perspective of people with disabilities, (b) enforcing ordinances that preserve access to parking spaces designated for people with disabilities, (c) enabling access to homes through housing modifications, (d) enhancing support available through mutual-aid groups, (e) developing skills for recruiting mentors, (f) promoting self-directed behavior change with personal and health concerns, (g) enhancing skills for personal self-advocacy, and (h) building the capacities of groups of people with disabilities for systems advocacy. Finally, we discuss issues that may contribute to research and action related to empowerment.

Child survival in the Third World: a functional analysis of oral rehydration therapy dissemination campaigns.

PIP: Behavior analysts conducted a functional analysis of different intervention strategies employed in 14 oral rehydration therapy (ORT) campaigns in 10 developing countries. The intervention researchers manipulated antecedents, behaviors, and/or consequences to improve diarrhea management. The strategies used radio announcements, posters, and pamphlets to promote behavior change. Only 2 campaigns (Thailand and Egypt) limited their intervention to these antecedents. Only 3 programs manipulated antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. The 1983 campaign in Bangladesh incorporated school instruction to siblings and home visits as part of skill training and provided incentives to trainers (US$30) as its consequences. The 1985 project in the Gambia used health workers to teach mothers at home about ORT and awarded happy baby lottery prizes (rice, sugar, and soap). The skills training component of the 1984 campaign in Honduras involved 1-on-1 instruction. A radio course on breast feeding, school instruction of siblings, and an illustrated health care manual. Its consequences were games and prizes on radio program call in, free calendars, key rings, t-shirts and a trip to Tegucigalpa. The only program limited to a skills training component was the campaign in South India in 1976. The training involved training nurses to instruct mothers about diarrhea management. An obstacle in all the campaigns was that ORT does not outwardly improve diarrhea and vomiting immediately. Those campaigns that had a skills training component were more effective than those that did not. Behavior analysts could contribute to ORT campaigns by developing simple and effective training programs and developing economical and effective mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of such campaigns.^ieng

Empowering people with physical disabilities through advocacy skills training.

Members of an advocacy organization for people with physical disabilities were trained to identify and report issues at group meetings. In addition, two consecutive chairpersons were trained to conduct action-oriented meetings. Measures of group members' activities outside meetings and related outcomes on identified issues were also collected. Results indicated increases in the number of disability-related issues reported by trained members and consistent improvements in chairperson performance following training. Retrospective interviews and permanent records showed that advocacy activities, as well as the outcomes of members' actions, increased after training. These findings and their implications for the empowerment of people with disabilities are discussed.

Effects of environmental design and police enforcement on violations of a handicapped parking ordinance.

This study presents two experiments that evaluate strategies to reduce violations of a handicapped parking ordinance. The first experiment compared effects of upright versus ground handicapped parking signs on percentage of intervals in which cars were parked illegally. Introducing upright signs produced an immediate reduction in the percentage of intervals of inappropriate use of parking spaces. The second experiment examined effects of a police enforcement program on percentage of intervals of inappropriate use of parking spaces and frequency of inappropriately parked cars. Results showed consistent reductions in percentage of intervals of inappropriate use and number of inappropriately parked cars compared with a control site where no enforcement program was introduced. Implications of the research data for law enforcement and public policy are discussed.