isabled house managers or counselors. The facility, usually a large house, is either purchased, rented, or constructed. Further along the continuum of disabled housing is nursing homes, which can be either long term intermediate care facilities or short-term convalescent homes. Nursing homes are almost always private, for-profit establishments. The most restrictive living arrangements for disabled persons are public residential facilities. These institutions, usually run by the State, often house as many as 1,000 residents.
The foundation of the disabled rights movement is the quest for independent living. This independence is defined as the control that disabled people exert over their own lives. As Berkeley's Center for Independent Living (CIL) describes it, "Independence [is] measured by an individual's ability to make his own decisions and the availability of the assistance necessary--from attendants to accessible housing--to have such control" (Shapiro, 1993, p. 54). Disabled persons should have the same basic liberties that the nondisabled population enjoys, namely the right to live according to their personal guidelines. Since this degree of freedom is unavailable to persons in the restrictive environment of state institutions, a movement began during the 1970s to deinstitutionalize the disabled population.
The deinstitutionalization movement has had a profound effect on disabled persons in America. In the early stages of this movement a significant number of disabled persons were transferred from state institutions to nursing homes, some of which proved to be just as restrictive. Other disabled persons were released into the community without benefit of access to adequate support systems.
Clees (1992) contends that support and follow-up services are the key to facilitating the integration of handicapped persons into the mainstream community, "Clients of virtually any intellectual functioning level can s...