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Seeking Person‐Environment Fit in Community Care Placement
Author(s) -
Segal Steven P.,
Silverman Carol,
Baumohl Jim
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1989.tb01554.x
Subject(s) - outreach , census , psychology , gerontology , medicine , environmental health , political science , population , law
Large numbers of patients leave mental hospitals to become residents of community‐based sheltered‐care facilities, yet little is known about how they use particular local environments to satisfy their needs and wants. This paper considers a crucial issue in community care placement, person‐environment fit, using survey data from interviews with 397 residents in 211 sheltered‐care facilities, drawn from 157 census tracts in California. It studies how individual characteristics interact with eight environmental contexts to influence sheltered‐care residents' external social integration. The results underline the power of social norms to determine ex‐patient outcomes within specific environments. Ex‐patients do relatively better in facility/community environments that allow their independent outreach, and also where they either share personal characteristics with the dominant social group or the dominant group is able to tolerate behavioral differences.