- Author
-
Waldman, P.
- Title
- Mental Disabilities.
- Coporate
- Cincinnati Univ., OH
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBS GCR 82-383
March 1982
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- NB80NADA1058
- Book or Conf
- AIA Research Foundation. Life Safety and the Handicapped, 1980 Conference. Final Report. October 26-30, 1980,
Washington, DC,
Kennett, E. W., Editors,
64-65 p.,
1982
- Keywords
-
handicapped
- Abstract
- Yesterday Jerry Kuns asked you all to close your eyes. I am asking you to open yours. I will talk of the potentials of the discipline of architecture in providing on its own terms environments for the life safety of the handicapped. Architecture has traditionally been primarily concerned with getting people into buildings, getting them around buildings, but rarely conscious of the route out. It is my proposition that the very sensitivities and conventions utilized traditionally to get people in and around buildings might prove to be positive approaches for getting them out. My comments emerge from what must be a brief summary of two major investigations into alternative environments (residential and work/service facilities) for the mentally disabled prepared for the Department of Human Services of the State of New Jersey and developed from 1976-1980. The first report developed criteria for transitional housing for the mentally disabled on the grounds of Trenton State and Greystone Psychiatric Hospitals. The second report developed guidelines for implementation of community-based mental health service packages (residential and human service facilities) in terms of "least restrictive" settings. The two reports from the basis of our approach to program packages, to problem-solving in terms of relevant criteria for physical planning, and strategies for implementation with respect to capital bond issues. It is our contention that normalization and socialization can only be successful or habilitative when one can determine how the target population's needs are both the same and different from that of the rest of the population.