[Development of community-based services for the mentally handicapped in the USA--on the way toward an integrated life]

Services for mentally retarded adults have undergone major changes over the past 15 years in the United States of America. Through the impact of "normalization", the calls for implementing fundamental civil rights for all citizens, and by applying methods of an essentially behavioural nature, services have gradually been moved out of the institutional sector and into the local communities. A regional service delivery model established in the state of Nebraska illustrates this development toward individualized living and competitive employment in the community.