A demonstration project in foster care for mentally retarded children, 1971

Foster care is a very important element in the care of children who must for some reason live outside their own homes. Foster care has been proven to be a service which the community can offer to children most nearly simulating the natural home environment. Foster care for the mentally retarded child has been infrequently tried and pushed because of the difficulty on social workers' part in being able to locate foster parents for the mentally retarded child and in being able to work with them. For this reason the proposed project herein concluded is a rational basis by which many children who have not been able to develop their potential can profit from an organized, specialized attempt to meet their special needs. This proposal is offered as an alternative to institutional care for which many children are not able to find relief because of the long waiting lists and the inability of institutional care to meet many of these children's needs and to help them develop to their capacity. Foster care of most nearly simulating the natural home environment, induces the development of the child's fullest potential and under supervision of a social worker and consultants can presumably have his human and specialized needs met in a more humane and less formal atmosphere

Surveying Persons with Disabilities: A Source Guide (Version 1)

As a collaborator with the Cornell Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. has been working on a project that identifies the strengths and limitations in existing disability data collection in both content and data collection methodology. The intended outcomes of this project include expanding and synthesizing knowledge of best practices and the extent existing data use those practices, informing the development of data enhancement options, and contributing to a more informed use of existing data. In an effort to provide the public with an up-to-date and easily accessible source of research on the methodological issues associated with surveying persons with disabilities, MPR has prepared a Source Guide of material related to this topic. The Source Guide contains 150 abstracts, summaries, and references, followed by a Subject Index, which cross references the sources from the Reference List under various subjects. The Source Guide is viewed as a “living document,” and will be periodically updated

Outpatient Civil Commitment in North Carolina: Constitutional and Policy Concerns

Outpatient commitment of the mentally ill is court-ordered treatment in the community and is usually characterized by short, recurring visits to a mental health clinic that provides treatment such as medication, individual or group therapy, day or part-day activities or supervision of living arrangements. The history and design of the North Carolina preventive commitment scheme and constitutional difficulties with this statute are discussed

Outpatient Civil Commitment in North Carolina: Constitutional and Policy Concerns

Outpatient commitment of the mentally ill is court-ordered treatment in the community and is usually characterized by short, recurring visits to a mental health clinic that provides treatment such as medication, individual or group therapy, day or part-day activities or supervision of living arrangements. The history and design of the North Carolina preventive commitment scheme and constitutional difficulties with this statute are discussed

Effect of a staff nutrition education program on the nutrition status of clients with mental retardation living in ICF/MR group homes

The specific aims of this research were to assess the nutritional status of a group of clients with mental retardation living in a unit of ICF/MR group homes, before and after a nutrition education training curriculum for their direct care staff. Seven ICFIMR group homes were used in this study, with three homes serving as the treatment group homes, and four homes serving as control homes. Eighteen clients with mental retardation from the three treatment group homes comprised the treatment group, and 22 clients with mental retardation from the four control group homes comprised the control group. A total of 40 clients were assessed for dietary, clinical, and anthropometric measures at baseline, and at two follow-up periods. Statistical analysis was performed using the t test for independent samples to compare assessment measures for clients in the treatment group with clients in the control group at baseline and the second follow-up assessment and to determine any significant differences in assessment measures from baseline to the second follow-up assessment for clients within each group

Utility of the implementation of programmatic systems to reduce and eliminate restraint use for the treatment of problem behaviors with individuals with mental retardation

Persons with mental retardation continue to remain one of society’s most vulnerable groups as the number of individuals served increases and non-proportional resources are allotted to take of their needs. With results of national investigations indicating widespread indiscriminate abuse of restraints and overmedication to manage dangerous behaviors, federal mandates have been initiated to ensure ethical, safe and clinically sound use of these techniques. This study addressed the implementation of systemic changes that included a restraint education program and policy changes, careful monitoring and review of restraint and behavioral programming by oversight review bodies, and intense training of preventative and de-escalation techniques to all staff. A statistically and clinically significant reduction in restraints was evidences upon programmatic implementation during this 18-month study. Psychotropic medication use also decreased significantly as did polypharmacy use for persons with mental retardation. Results supported research noting that reduction of behavioral restraint does not result in an automatic increase in alternative highly restrictive management techniques. Further research is warranted to isolate specific elements of effective systemic change which weigh more heavily in the improvement of behavioral management for persons with mental retardation

Development of an Inventory for Evaluating Sheltered Workshops in the State of Washington

The purposes of this investigation were two-fold: First, to provide workshop personnel with an effective, but time-saving instrument which may be used as an evaluative guide for individual sheltered workshops; second, to provide interested persons with an instrument which will point out basic requirements for a successful workshop