Characteristics of Operators of Adult Psychiatric Foster Homes

To discover characteristics of adult foster home operators that might improve future selection and training procedures, the authors studied 39 operators who lived and worked with chronic psychiatric patients from a VA hospital. The findings supported their hypothesis that foster home operators have higher behavioral expectations of the mentally ill than does the normative population, in this case a group of college sophomores. Other findings included the fact that the operators most preferred clients diagnosed as being depressed or anxious and least preferred those who were alcoholic. The reason most gave for being foster home operators was that they wanted to help people.