Client characteristics and residential placement patterns.

Recent emphases on deinstitutionalization and community placement have been accompanied by the development of a range of residential placement alternatives and by shifts in the control of placement decisions. In this study we examined the patterns of placement into these alternatives for 66,367 clients receiving services for mentally retarded persons from the state of California and evaluated the ability of client characteristics to discriminate among clients in four residential placement types. Results of the discriminant analyses suggest that client characteristics, including maladaptive behavior, age, ethnicity, medical problems, ambulation, toileting, and speech, are important factors in the consideration of residential placement for mentally retarded people.