Housing For The Chronically Mentally Disabled: Part I—Conceptual Framework And Social Context

This paper reviews research concerned with community housing programs for the chronically mentally disabled (CMD). In the first section, the ecological perspective is presented as a conceptual framework for the study of housing for the CMD. Several key concepts, such as the least restrictive environment, normalization, and integration, are tied into the ecological perspective. In the second section, literature on three dimensions of the social context of housing for the CMD is reviewed: (a) the geo-social environment: (b) responses from informal social systems; and (c) the planning, policy, and service delivery system. This literature is summarized within the framework of the ecological perspective, and the paper concludes with directions for further research and action.