Environmental competence and environmental management.

Management of the physical setting by long-term care staff, on behalf of residents, has the potential to effectively use teams of staff to improve the quality of life for residents and subsequently increase their own job satisfaction. Problems can be avoided if an open, participatory planning and implementation strategy is adopted. The physical setting is not the only, nor necessarily the primary, influence on the patterns of resident and staff behavior, but it does represent a potentially significant and under-utilized medium for therapeutic intervention.