ABSTRACT
The period between 1985 and 1992 was one of great change within the intellectual disability field in the State of Victoria. Changes in the societal perspective of the intellectually disabled person and of appropriate models of care for them developed out of the emergent sociology of the 1960s and 1970s. The legislation separated for the first time the care of the intellectually disabled from that of the mentally ill. It asserted the rights of intellectually disabled people to equal access, equal opportunity and to normalisation. The Ten Year Plan foundered on the difficulties inherent in the legislation. Its comprehensiveness was beyond the administrative capabilities of government. The extensiveness of the changes which took place in the environment were experienced by the organisations as a marked increase in complexity. The environment of Mayday Hills Training Centre was both lacking in receptivity to the organisation, and rich with opportunity.
