FREE ESSAY ON MENTAL RETARDATION

MENTAL RETARDATION

Mental retardation has been around since the beginning of time, but we are only able to
trace it historically back about 200 years ago beginning in the 1700's through present
time. In this paper, I will give the reader more knowledge about mental retardation and
how it is still viewed as a social problem today.
Has society really come to understand the disorder that plagues the lives of many or are
they still being viewed as the deviant outcast in society? It is important that the term
mental retardation be defined before continuing; the Merriam - Webster Collegiate
Dictionary states Mental Retardation as being:" Sub average intellectual ability that is
equivalent to or less than an IQ of 70, is present from birth or infancy and is
manifested especially by abnormal development by learning difficulties and by problems in
social adjustments".
Prior to the 18th century little was known about mental retardation, no one really knew
who these people with special needs were, why they acted like they did and above all they
did not know how they should be treated. In the book entitled Mental Retardation by Mary
Beirne-Smith, James R. Patton, and Richard Ittenbach, it states that many people in
society viewed these people as buffoons, court jesters, and even demons. Also stated in
the book entitled Mental Retardation that little service if any was provided to people
with special needs, it was protective nature (i.e., providing housing and substance) and
was usually offered in monasteries. My research has not uncovered much in the way where
adequate training was made available during those times. 
Throughout history, different patterns and methods of treatment were developed, but it
was still not until the 20th century that retardation became a describable condition.
It was not until the 18th century that a new social attitude was established. That social
attitude was one of the Renaissances; it held that all "men," even those with who were
disabled, had rights. It was that attitude that helped society realize they needed to
support and assist people with special needs and to stop viewing them as demons and
outcast. In the book Mental Retardation it states that the first part of the 19th century
was a time of enthusiasm for working with people who had various disabilities, an
enthusiasm displayed by a number of people in society. Those people in society were more
willing to help the less fortunate people with solid intervention. 
In the book entitled Mental Deficiency The Changing Outlook by Alan Clarke and Joseph
Berg, it states that the origin of special education occurred in Europe in the early
1800's. It has been stated in Mental Retardation that special education was dramatically
influenced by a man named Jean-Marc Itard (1774-1838). Itard was a medical doctor who was
concerned with diseases of the ear and the needs of the deaf. In 1799 Itard became
interested in a feral child and moved to and area in Aveyron France. During that same
year Itard had an effect on many, it was because of him that another man by the name of
Seguin wrote a book entitled Idiocy and Its Treatment by Physiological Methods, which
became a major reference work for educating people with retardation in the latter part of
the 19th century.
During the late 19th century asylums, state hospitals and sanitariums were being
recognized as the place for the mentally retarded. According to the website Historic
Asylums some of the asylums of the 19th century represent a darker period in mental
health care, with involuntary incarceration, barbaric and ineffective treatments, and
abuse of patients. However, there is also a legacy of progressive institutional treatment
left by Dorothea Dix, Thomas Story Kirkbride, John Galt, and others represented by these
buildings and sites: treatments and philosophies which seem rather outdated today, but at
the time were a great improvement in the treatment of the mentally ill. 
The most famous historic sanitarium was the Kellogg Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.
This sanitarium was of the hospital/health spa variety.
After World War II a change was under way in regards to the mental retarded, it was known
as a quiet revolution as stated in Mental Retardation. Individuals were still being
institutionalized at an alarming rate; tragically, many persons who should not have been
placed in these settings found themselves there. Furthermore, too many had already
suffered sterilizations, a personal indignity, and violation of their civil rights.
The concept of normalization, which originated during the 1950s in Scandinavia, was
finding much support in the United States. N.E. Bank-Mikkelsen and Bengt Nirje were
eminently responsible for the development and dissemination of this principle in
Scandinavia, while Wolf Wolfensberger was instrumental in championing it in the United
States as found in the chapter 2 Historical Perspective Mental Retardation.
"Mental Retardation," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000 states the number of
mentally retarded people living in large, state sponsored institutions have declined
since the 1960s and many of the institutions have closed. Group homes provide care,
supervision, and training for a small number of unrelated individuals. 
In 1961 with President Kennedy in office, mental retardation was brought to the attention
of the nation due to his sister being mentally retarded. President Kennedy formed a
national policy, which was a guide to the standards for the mentally retarded.
Great strides have been made during the last twenty years for the mentally retarded,
treatment, education, and lifestyle. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights Geneva, Switzerland The Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded
Persons was in acted on December 20, 1971 by the United Nations. It states in seven
points to the world the rights and quality of life the mentally retarded are to expect. 
The mentally retarded can expect to have an education within a school system that
provides them an Individualized Education Program in accordance with their abilities and
disabilities.
The mentally retarded can participate in such programs as the Special Olympics.
The mentally retarded can be productive citizens by training in a vocational school.
The mentally retarded can have a quality of life that is a balance between the expression
of basic values and the degree in which we personal goals are achieved
The mentally retarded want to feel full when they are hungry, safe when they are scared,
loved when they are lonely and needed when they are full of doubt, just like every other
person on this planet.
Mentally retarded are people who do not want to be victimized and characterized by
others, just like every other person on this planet.