Accommodating adults with severe and profound mental handicaps: comparative revenue costs

The revenue costs of two small houses were compared with those of five larger, local, community-based units and two mental handicap hospitals. The community units were cheaper than the small houses and the hospitals, despite serving people with more severe handicaps. The small houses were slightly more expensive than the hospitals but, under certain assumptions, could be viewed as incurring equivalent costs. Clear evidence of economies of scale was not found except in the comparison between the community units and the small houses. However, other research has shown that small houses can provide a superior quality of care