Improving the Quality of Written Developmental Policies for Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

Staff in community-based homes for adults with developmental disabilities often lack the expertise to develop and implement quality written development policies or Individualized Habilitation Plans (IHPs) as they are known in the United States of America. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effective- ness of a technical assistance model de-signed to teach staff to use existing materials for developing higher quality IHPs. The materials staff were taught to use consisted of: (a) an assessment inven- tory to assist in identifying adaptive behaviour goals, (b) a standardized for-mat for writing measurable and observ-able data-based goals and objectives, and (c) graphic data displays for monitoring the effectiveness of intervention proce-dures. The IHPs of six adults with intel-lectual disabilities were rated along 11 dimensions by two independent observ-ers prior to and after staff had been taught to use the materials. After techni-cal assistance had been provided, the rated quality of each 1HP improved. In addition, the data-based approach was associated with more consistent evalu-ation of each learnerࢫs progress. The technical assistance model appeared to be effective In improvimg the quality of IHPs.