John J. McGee

Treatment Strategies in the Habilitation of Severely Mentally Retarded-Mentally Ill Adolescents and Adults

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an analysis of habilitation (prevo-cational and vocational) intervention strategies for severely mentally retarded and mentally ill adolescents and adults. Educators, rehabilitation specialists, and community agencies are faced with a growing and critical problem in meeting the needs of this population. Because of recent legislative, judicial, and consumer advocacy pressure, these persons are beginning to be served in the mainstream of community life. However, even today, some professionals consider persons with these special needs as too severely handicapped to receive prevocational or vocational training. Because community agencies are faced with an increasing need to serve these individuals, new treatment strategies must be developed to meet their needs. Unless such strategies are developed, many of these persons will continue to be placed in nursing facilities or other long-term care institutions. In addition, it is the authors’ intent that this chapter provide a framework for understanding the overall problems, needs, techniques, strategies, issues, and new findings in serving this challenging population.

A Model Inpatient Psychiatric Program

The purpose of this chapter is to review the needs of the mentally retarded-mentally ill and to outline the range of programs and services that persons with these needs require. The mentally retarded-mentally ill represent the last group of retarded persons in the United States to move into the mainstreams of family and community life. They present multiple programmatic and environmental challenges. Their needs are often poorly identified. Services to meet their needs are few, and professionals often refer them from agency to agency because they fall between the cracks of most current human-service systems.