Abstract
The function of residential institutions for persons with intellectual disabilities in order to facilitate community living is discussed through a comparison between two different groups of countries. The first group consists of countries that established residential institutions in early twentieth century developing into the movement to community living in late 1950s. The second group is composed of countries that established institutions in 1950s or 1960s just about the time when the first groups of countries proposed the movement of community living with the idea of Normalization. The analysis of the number of residents in residential institutions and smallsized homes in communities in three countries in these 40 years to 100 years shows different patterns. In the U. S. A., the number of residents in residential institutions increased since early twentieth century till 1960s and has been decreasing after the peak of 1967. On the contrary, the number of residents at group homes in community is increasing since 1960s and surpasses the number of residents at residential institutions between 1980 and 1990. This seems to be a typical pattern of countries in the first group. Japan shows a different pattern in which the number of residents in both residential institutions and group homes is increasing although the number of residents in group homes is about one tenth of the residents in residential institutions in 1996. This pattern of Japan is related to the national policy that promotes the community services using resources of residential institutions. Norway also shows a different pattern that the number of residents in residential institutions decreases drastically in five years since 1991 when they started to close of all residential institutions. Further analysis of the function of residential institutions and the development of community living in countries of the second group is required. This will bring many fruitful ideas for developing countries so that they will be able to create the community living without stepping into the poor environments of residential institutions.
