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Special Aspects

The recent advances in mental retardation have not so much increased the number as their "visibility". The Social Security Act amendments extending benefits beyond the age of 18 to those children of wage earners who were permanently and totally disabled before age 18 have been of particular importance. In 1957, two-thirds of those eligible were diagnosed as mentally retarded. All this has resulted in increasing attention being given to the legal status of the mentally retarded, to provisions for guardianship, and to general community acceptance.

Governmental Programs

The field of mental retardation provides impressive testimony as to the effectiveness of enlightened Congressional leadership. A great share of the rapid progress is due to earmarked appropriations for special programs in mental retardation made to the U.S. Children's Bureau, the U.S. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the U.S. Office of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, all of which, in turn, have stimulated state programs.

On the state level, the Council of State Governments has given stimulating leadership; and a study published by NARC in 1959 lists 20 legislative and governors' commissions concerned with state legislation and programming for the mentally retarded. (6)

Research Developments

A comprehensive survey of recent research developments is provided in the volume Mental Subnormality. (7) Work in the medical and biological sciences seems to be quite superior to what is being undertaken in psychology, sociology, and education. Undoubtedly this is due to a lack of well-trained research workers in those fields. The rapid program developments and the demand for still further increases in service make evaluative research an urgent necessity in addition to the long-range basic research. Biochemical studies are pushing ahead the frontiers of research in mental retardation and one may well expect significant new findings as to a common base for certain types of mental illness and mental retardation.

Prevention

Phenylketonuria is a biochemical disturbance which usually results in serious retardation. Discovered in 1934, it is now subject to a simple inexpensive test and, if detected in earliest infancy, can be controlled by means of a specific radical diet. While numerically this disease accounts for only a small fraction of the mentally retarded, it has highlighted the distinct possibilities for prevention of mental retardation not just in the distant future but in the here and now. However, medical science has discovered other means of preventing certain types of mental retardation: by surgical intervention, by improved techniques of delivery, and by preventing damaging conditions during pregnancy. Translated into community planning this means that mental retardation has become a promising new field for public health action. The significance of such prevention can materially be measured by the fact that for the average state the admission of every 30 patients to the institution for retardates means an eventual expenditure by the taxpayers of one million dollars at minimum.

International Developments

The founding of the National Association for Retarded Children was paralleled by the development of similar organizations at that time in several European countries. In the Far East an active parents' organization existed in Japan. The Scandinavian countries lead in the development of small residential units. Holland has done outstandingly well in the development of sheltered workshops. The most significant international work so far has been a group of seminars on the mental health of the subnormal child sponsored by the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization in 1957 and 1959.

Bibliography (8)

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Davies, Stanley, P. The Mentally Retarded in Society. Columbia University Press, New York. 1958. 248 pp.
Dittman, Laura. The Mentally Retarded Child at Home. U.S. Children's Bureau, Washington, D.C. 1959. 98 pp.
Dybwad, Gunnar. "Community Organization for the Mentally Retarded" in Community Organization 1959. Columbia University Press, New York. 1959.
Hart, Evelyn. How Retarded Children Can Be Helped. Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 288. Public Affairs Committee, New York. 1959. 28 pp.
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Murray, Dorothy. "Needs of Parents of Mentally Retarded Children," American Journal of Mental Deficiency. May 1959.
National Association for Retarded Children. Legislative and Governor's Commissions Concerned With State Legislation and Programming for the Mentally Retarded. 1959. 28 pp.
-- -- . Responsibility for Costs of Maintenance and Training in Public Institutions for the Mentally Retarded. 1958. 26 pp.
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U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Departmental Committee on Mental Retardation. Mental Retardation: Programs and Services of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. 1959. Mimeographed.
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