Q & A
MENTAL RETARDATION
How does one define mental retardation?
Mental retardation is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This disability originates before the age of 18.
A complete and accurate understanding of mental retardation involves realizing that mental retardation refers to a particular state of functioning that begins in childhood, has many dimensions, and is affected positively by individualized supports. As a model of functioning, it includes the contexts and environment within which the person functions and interacts and requires a multidimensional and ecological approach that reflects the interaction of the individual with the environment, and the outcomes of that interaction with regards to independence, relationships, societal contributions, participation in school and community, and personal well being.
What factors must be considered when determining if a person has mental retardation and developing an individualized support plan?
When using the AAMR definition, classification and systems of supports professionals and other team members must:
- Evaluate limitations in present functioning within the context of the individual's age peers and culture;
- Take into account the individual's cultural and linguistic differences as well as communication, sensory, motor, and behavioral factors;
- Recognize that within an individual, limitations often coexist with strengths;
- Describe limitations so that an individualized plan of needed supports can be developed; and
- Provide appropriate personalized supports to improve the functioning of a person with mental retardation.
Adaptive behavior is the collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that people have learned so they can function in their everyday lives. Significant limitations in adaptive behavior impact a person's daily life and affect the ability to respond to a particular situation or to the environment.
Why is support important?
Providing individualized supports can improve personal functioning, promote self-determination and societal inclusion, and improve personal well-being of a person with mental retardation. Focusing on supports as the way to improve education, employment, recreation, and living environments is an important part of person-centered approaches to providing supports to people with mental retardation.
What factors cause Mental Retardation?
The causes of mental retardation can be divided into biomedical, social, behavioral, and educational risk factors that interact during the life of an individual and/or across generations from parent to child.
Biomedical factors are related to biologic processes, such as genetic disorders or nutrition. Social factors are related to social and family interaction, such as child stimulation and adult responsiveness. Behavioral factors are related to harmful behaviors, such as maternal substance abuse. And educational factors are related to the availability of family and educational supports that promote mental development and increases in adaptive skills. Also, factors present during one generation can influence the outcomes of the next generation. By understanding inter-generational causes, appropriate supports can be used to prevent and reverse the effects of risk factors.
Brain Injury
What is Brain injury?
Brain injury has occurred to the brain after birth and “which is not hereditary, congenital or degenerative.” A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acquired brain injury that is “caused by an external physical force that may produce a diminished or altered state of consciousness.” The most common causes of TBI are vehicle crashes, falls, sports injuries, and violence. Other acquired brain injuries can be caused by medical events such as anoxia (loss of oxygen to the brain), aneurysms, infections to the brain, tumors, or stroke.
What can a person expect from a brain injury?
A brain injury can, result in “an impairment of cognitive abilities or physical functioning. It can also result in the disturbance of behavioral or emotional functioning.” Cognitive consequences can include memory loss, slowed ability to process information, trouble concentrating, organizational problems, poor judgment, difficulty initiating activities, among others. Physical consequences can include seizures, muscle spasticity, fatigue, headaches, balance problems, among others. Emotional/behavioral consequences can include depression, mood swings, anxiety, impulsivity, agitation, among others.
Brain injury affects not only the individual, but the family, close friends, coworkers and other social networks of the individual as well. Roles and relationships change; the financial ramifications may be extensive.
Seven things families need to remember
- Reinforce the behaviors you would like to see increase. Like a garden "water the behaviors you'd like to grow."
- When safety is not an issue, ignore the behavior you would like to decrease.
- Model the behaviors you would like to see.
- Avoid situations that provoke behaviors you are trying to reduce.
- Structure the environment, use cues for positive behaviors. Plan rest periods.
- Redirect the person rather than challenging them.
- Seek professional help sooner than later.
Brain Injury Characteristics:
Just as each individual is unique, so is each brain injury. Physical disabilities, impaired learning and personality changes are common. Frequently reported problems include:
Physical: Speech, Hearing, Paralysis, Headaches, Vision, Seizure Disorder, Muscle Spasticity, Reduced Endurance.
Cognitive Impairments: Concentration, Attention, Perceptions, Planning, Communication, Writing Skills, Short Term Memory, Long Term Memory, Judgment, sequencing, Reading Skills, Orientation.
Behavioral / Emotional Changes: Fatigue, Anxiety, Low Self-Esteem, Restlessness, Agitation, Mood Swings, Excessive Emotions, Depression, Sexual Dysfunction, Lack of Motivation, Inability to Cope, Self-Centeredness.
Mental Illness
What is Mental Illness?
Mental illness is a term used for a group of disorders causing severe disturbances in thinking, feeling and relating. The result is a diminished capacity for coping with ordinary demands of life. Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, children, adolescents, adults, the elderly and they can occur in any family.
Several million people in this country suffer from a serious, long-term mental illness. Consumers with a mental illness occupy more hospital beds than do persons with any other illness. Although they may have difficulty performing at a normal level due to their illness, those with a mental illness are usually of normal intelligence.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia affects approximately one in one hundred. The disease affects men and women about equally and its onset is usually in the late teens or early twenties.
Schizophrenia is a thought disorder, where there is a disturbance in thought patterns and processes.
Affective Disorders
The affective disorders are the common of psychiatric disorders. They are generally less disabling than schizophrenia. The primary disturbance in these disorders is that of affect and mood. These mood disorders may be manic depressive illness (bipolar) in which the person swings between extreme high and low moods, or they may be unipolar in which the person suffers from persistent severe depression.
Other Disabling Mental Illness
Anxiety, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorders, etc., may also be considered mental illnesses. Other conditions, such as personality disorders, behavior disorders and the abuse of alcohol and drugs may often be so disabling as to be labeled mental illness.
What are the causes of Mental Illness?
Causes of mental illness are not well understood, although it is believed that the functioning of the brain's neurotransmitters is involved. Heredity may be a factor in mental illness as it is in diabetes and cancer. Stress may contribute to the onset of mental illness in a vulnerable person. Recreational drugs contribute to the onset, but are unlikely to be the single cause. Family interaction and early childhood training were once dominant theories of causation, however, current research does not support those theories.
Since the causes of long-term mental illnesses are not known, there is no effective prevention and thus, no cures at this time. However, there are treatments available which substantially improve the functioning of persons with these disorders.