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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Thomas, Heather, June 1984 - CREATING AND CONDUCTING A CLIENT FOLLOW-UP STUDY
Abstract: A client follow-up study was conducted for the Human Development Center in Tampa, Florida. The purposes of the study were: 1) to describe the population of former clients; 2) to discover if there were any improvements in their status since leaving the program; and 3) to identify demographic characteristics of the clients correlated with positive client outcome. Telephone interviews were administered to forty-two persons, including the former clients, their families, and their social workers. Information was gathered regarding twenty-six former clients. The study found two significant correlates to success (defined as the ability to live in a setting less restrictive than that from which they came): higher I.Q., and earlier age at admission to the program. It was also found that those clients most recently released from the program tend to be enrolled in vocational training programs, as opposed to being either employed or unemployed. Recommendations made to the agency included: standardization of the follow-up procedure for future studies; a direction of the agency's efforts toward recruiting relatively young clients who are only mildly retarded; and a greater degree of vocational training if future studies confirm the association between time since discharge and employment status.
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