Hi! My answer is kinda long, so please bear with me, lol. :o)
Often in American society, the disability unfortunately defines the individual. It's a label the person carries with them for their entire life and is the main factor in determining where they go to school, where they live as adults and the type of medical care required.
In a residential setting for individuals with developmental and physical disabilities it's very important to understand that where they're living is their home. Any employees, caretakers, supervisors, medical and maintenance staff are guests in the residents' home. They subsequently work FOR the residents and must respectfully maintain that the residents are the staffs' employer regardless of the severity of the disability.
Treating individuals with disabilities as a whole person is an immediate "cure" to removing the negative labels they have had stamped on them since being diagnosed. Once a person's self esteem is raised and they're made to feel as a sincere active member of his/her community, it has a direct positive affect on their treatment. Even a person who is diagnosed with a profound and severe developmental disability (severe autism is one example), is non verbal and non ambulatory (perhaps even completely immobile) can be taught how to demonstrate their indication of choice.
Being able to make choices in life, having those who work for you treat you with respect & dignity while they advocate for you within the appropriate guidelines of their society would make anyone feel like a "whole" person. And when it comes right down to it, I suspect that's how we all want to be treated.

saroid: 2 years ago

this answer rules.

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Well you can never treat each resident as the same person as all the rest, each and every resident should be treated as an individual but each should receive the same exact care and treatment .

If you treat each symptom or disorder separately, you may have some success in handling each individual problem, but unless you look at the whole person, taking into account all of the problems as well as emotional health, age, occupation and lifestyle, you may be unable to see that the many symptoms and disorders are actually stemming from another underlying health concern.