Issues in the treatment of mentally retarded patients in the community mental health system

Developmental disability, particularly mental retardation, both affects a person's cognitive functioning and places that person on an alternative track of development which, when combined with social, political and economic pressures, places the developmentally disabled person at increased risk...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Community mental health journal 1986-12, Vol.22 (4), p.314-327
Main Authors: MENOLASCINO, F. J, GILSON, S. F, LEVITAS, A. S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Combined Modality Therapy
Community Mental Health Services
Deinstitutionalization
Female
Humans
Intellectual Disability - diagnosis
Intellectual Disability - therapy
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental Disorders - therapy
Mental health
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychotherapy
Psychotropic Drugs - therapeutic use
Social Adjustment
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
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Summary:Developmental disability, particularly mental retardation, both affects a person's cognitive functioning and places that person on an alternative track of development which, when combined with social, political and economic pressures, places the developmentally disabled person at increased risk for mental illness. The presenting symptoms of mental illness will be modified by the mentally retarded person's cognitive impairment, personality development, and massively different life experience, as will the nature of his interactions with helping agencies. Evaluation, diagnosis and treatment must evolve from an alliance with the mentally retarded persons, not with caretaking agencies, and must be modified to take into account the retarded person's powerlessness. The therapist must be prepared to act as both advocate and bridge-builder for the patient, with the patient's increasing participation. The therapist must be prepared to steer between the Scylla of ignorance about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in the mentally retarded and the Charybdis of financial disincentives for human service agencies to collaborate in their care. The advantages of inter-agency cooperation in the treatment of dually-diagnosed individuals is described and illustrated.
ISSN:0010-3853
1573-2789
DOI:10.1007/BF00754386