	Group Living Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

GLS 13: Residential Facilities

Residential facilities contribute to a healthy, non-institutional, homelike environment.

Interpretation: “Homelike” settings are assessed within the context of organizations location and environment.

GLS 13.01

Living quarters consist of separate cottages, or resident units in a residential building, and include:

a common room, dining area, and space for indoor recreation;
private areas where residents can meet with family and friends;
facilities for bathing, toileting, and personal hygiene; and
ready access to a telephone for use by residents and personnel.

GLS 13.02

Personal accommodations for residents include:

adequately and attractively furnished rooms with a separate bed for each resident, including a clean, comfortable, covered mattress, pillow, sufficient linens, and blankets; and
a safe place such as a locker to keep personal belongings and valuables.

Interpretation: Bedroom space should, at a minimum, meet state requirements and accommodate the basic furnishings the standard mentions. National advocacy standards suggest that single rooms have at least 100 square feet of floor space and rooms housing more than one individual have at least 80 square feet per person. Group assignments and room accommodations may be adjusted as appropriate to the service provided, therapeutic considerations, level of risk, or developmental appropriateness.

GLS 13.03

Residential facilities also provide:

adequate space for storage and maintenance needs;
sufficient supplies and equipment to meet residents’ needs;
rooms for providing on-site services, as applicable;
at least one room suitably furnished for the use of on-duty personnel; and
private sleeping accommodations for personnel who sleep at the facility, if applicable.

GLS 13.04

The organization accommodates informal gatherings of residents, including during inclement weather, and has a smoking policy, where applicable.

GLS 13.05

The organization has adequate facilities for housekeeping, laundry, maintenance, storage, and related administrative support functions.

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	PURPOSE: Individuals who receive Group Living Services regain, maintain, and improve life skills and functioning in a safe, stable, community-based living arrangement.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	ADVOCACY An act performed with or on behalf of others through direct intervention, empowerment, or representation. Case advocacy refers to actions taken in relation to a particular individual consumer. Cause, social, or systems advocacy refers to actions taken in relation to a common issue affecting a group of persons.


	APPROPRIATENESS The degree to which a particular service, placement, treatment, intervention, or activity is: best suited to an individual's needs; not excessive, unduly intrusive, or restrictive; anticipated to be effective in achieving the desired and specified outcomes; and adequate or sufficient in quantity to address the problem.