Aim: The overall aim is to study ordinary life in group homes for older people with intellectual disabilities from the perspective of residents to identify situations in everyday life where opportunities and obstacles for residents influence occur, and to investigate in what way this is expressed in the interaction between the resident, co-residents and the support staff.

Method: The study has an ethnographic approach with observations, video recorded meetings and interviews. The participants are the residents, 65 years and older and support staff in three group homes for people with intellectual disabilities in Sweden. The study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee. In the ongoing analysis of everyday life the time geographic concepts project, activity and constraints are used. The meetings between residents and staff are analyzed by interaction analysis. The theoretical starting-point rests upon theories about power, autonomy and structure.

Results and conclusion: Preliminary findings show a lot of on-going projects in everyday life of the group home. Some projects were initiated by the resident and others by the support staff. These projects are indicative of both opportunities and difficulties for residents to exert influence over the most basic needs of everyday life.