Psychosocial treatment malls for people with intellectual disabilities.
Treatment malls bundle therapies into one shared space to push adults with ID toward community life, but no one has counted if it works yet.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pitetti et al. (2007) wrote a story-style review about treatment malls for adults with intellectual disability. A treatment mall is a day program where clients move through different therapy shops instead of staying in one room.
The paper does not give numbers. It simply describes how the mall model packs speech, OT, social skills, and work prep into one shared space.
What they found
The review found no data. It only maps the idea: bring services together so adults with ID can practice real-life skills in one spot and then use them in the community.
How this fits with other research
Xenitidis et al. (1999) tested a locked inpatient unit and cut challenging behavior enough to send most clients back home. Pitetti et al. (2007) shift the same goals into an open, mall-style day program. The settings look opposite, but both aim for community placement.
Eussen et al. (2016) later scanned every adult ID mental-health study and found almost no solid trials. Their empty shelf matches H et al.'s missing numbers and shows the field still needs real data.
Lunsky et al. (2024) add that adults with ID must help design services. That call updates the 2007 mall idea from staff-run shops to partner-run shops.
Why it matters
If you run day programs, think mall, not classroom. Set up themed stations where clients rotate, practice, and generalize skills in the same visit. Track simple measures like community outings or challenging behavior to finally give the model the numbers it still lacks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The provision of active treatment for people with intellectual disabilities has been seminal in the literature and in practice for a number of years. Active treatment has programmatic, financial, and legal ramifications for agencies and should be at the center of all appropriate treatment plans. The current work examines the use of psychosocial rehabilitation treatment malls to deliver active treatment to people with intellectual disabilities. The history, development, and implementation of these methods are discussed, with emphasis on services that are functional, meaningful, and portable. The importance of the therapeutic milieu is considered in context and discussed as the primary pathway to increased community integration. Finally, future directions of the treatment malls are considered.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2007 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2006.07.002