Sheltered Housing for the Chronic Psychiatric Patient: The Influence of Operators of Board and Care Facilities on Community Participation of their Residents

Abstract

Home care settings remain a primary alternative for the community placement of individuals with chronic psychiatric disabilities. This exploratory study employed survey data collected from randomly selected sheltered care facilities in the City of Winnipeg. The intent was to study the influence operators of sheltered care facilities had both on levels of alienation experienced by their residents and as well, on the level of actual contact residents had with people living in the neighbourhood. It was found that alienation in residents was not related to the level of social alienation expressed by the operators of the board and care homes in which chronic patients resided, but seemed directly tied to the individual resident's level of psychopathology and sex. However, level of psychopathology was not found to be directly related to the degree of actual contact the chronically disabled had with people living in their immediate neighbourhood. Contact with neighbours achieved by the mentally ill was found to be directly related to the level of social alienation of the people operating their board and care residences. Overall, it appeared that women residents under the care of less socially alienated board and care operators, experienced the highest levels of neighbourhood contacts.