Mental retardation historical perspective
|
Mental retardation Microchapters |
|
Diagnosis |
|---|
|
Treatment |
|
Case Studies |
|
Mental retardation historical perspective On the Web |
|
American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Mental retardation historical perspective |
|
Risk calculators and risk factors for Mental retardation historical perspective |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Historical Perspective
The term "Mental retardation" has acquired pejorative and shameful connotations over the last few decades and is now used almost exclusively in in The United States in technical or scientific contexts.
- In North America the broad term developmental delay has become an increasingly preferred synonym by many parents and direct support professionals. Elsewhere, however, developmental delay is generally used to imply that appropriate intervention will improve or completely eliminate the condition, allowing for "catching up." Importantly, this term carries the emotionally powerful idea that the individual's current difficulties are likely to be temporary.
- Developmental disability is preferred by most physicians, but can also refer to any other physical or psychiatric delay, such as delayed puberty.
- The phrase intellectual disability is increasingly being used as a synonym for people with significantly below-average IQ.[1] These terms are sometimes used as a means of separating general intellectual limitations from specific, limited deficits as well as indicating that it is not an emotional or psychological disability. Intellectual disability is also used to describe the outcome of traumatic brain injury or lead poisoning or dementing conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. It is not specific to congenital conditions like Down syndrome.
The American Association on Mental Retardation continued to use the term mental retardation until 2006.[2] In June 2006 its members voted to change the name of the organisation to the "American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities," rejecting the options to become the AAID or AADD. Part of the rationale for the double name was that many of the members worked with people with autism and Asperger syndrome, also known as pervasive developmental disorders, not all of whom were also mentally retarded.
In the UK, "mental handicap" had become the common medical term, replacing "mental subnormality" in Scotland and "mental deficiency" in England and Wales, until Stephen Dorrell, Secretary of State for Health in England and Wales from 1995-7, changed the NHS's designation to "learning disability." The new term is not yet widely understood, and is often taken to refer to problems affecting schoolwork (the American usage): which are known in the UK as "learning difficulties." British social workers may use "learning difficulty" to refer to both people with MR and those with conditions such as dyslexia.
In England and Wales the Mental Health Act 1983 defines "mental impairment" and "severe mental impairment" as "a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind which includes significant/severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning and is associated with abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on the part of the person concerned."[3] As behavior is involved, these are not necessarily permanent conditions: they are defined for the purpose of authorising detention in hospital or guardianship. However, English statute law uses "mental impairment" elsewhere in a less well-defined manner—e.g. to allow exemption from taxes—implying that mental retardation without any behavioural problems is what is meant. Mental Impairment is scheduled to be removed from the Act when it is amended in 2008.
References
- ↑ MENCAP: Website of the UK's leading learning disability charity. Retrieved 28 June 2006
- ↑ "AAIDD POSITION STATEMENTS". Retrieved 2007-08-23.
- ↑ "DRAFT ILLUSTRATIVE CODE OF PRACTICE" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-08-23.