The report investigates the medical background and circumstances surrounding the death of a severely retarded adult male who was a resident of a community developmental center in New York State. It illustrates the complex medical, legal, and ethical issues involved in medical decision making on behalf of persons unable to provide informed consent.…

This report from the ongoing National Residential Information Systems Project provides statistics on persons with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities (MR/DD) receiving residential services in the United States for the year ending June 30, 1996, as well as comparative statistics from earlier years. Section 1 contains chapters…

This article sets out a rationale and provides a model for family work by group care practitioners. In doing so it points out that practitioners will need to avoid parent blaming attitudes and become family-centered rather than simply child-focused. Thus the critical issues to be addressed are how to ensure that a group care program is from an…

The abuse of people with developmental disabilities has a long and horrific history, which extends from prehistoric to current times. Only in the past 20 or 30 years has society recognized that this abuse is a serious social problem and, with this recognition, research has been carried out on the topic. The limited research that has been done…

The 11 papers assembled in this volume reflect the readiness of professional social work to develop practice approaches for working with parents of children in foster care. The papers were written from different perspectives, emphasize diverse aspects of foster care, and disagree on many issues. A unifying theme exists, however, in the shared…

This two-volume compilation of 21 papers discusses issues stemming from the Welsch versus Likins suit (1974). The suit led to the 1980 Welsch-Noot consent decree requiring the State of Minnesota to reduce the overall population of mentally retarded persons residing in state institutions by nearly one-third over 6 years. The 11 papers in Volume I…

To obtain information concerning interagency agreements which use the resources of various state agencies to serve handicapped children, state agency officials in Connecticut and Maryland responsible for establishing and implementing such agreements were interviewed by Government Accounting Office officials, and pertinent documents were reviewed.…

This report from the ongoing National Residential Information Systems Project on Residential Services provides statistics on persons with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities (MR/DD) receiving residential services in the U.S. for the year ending June 30,1995, as well as comparative statistics from earlier years. The report…

Asserts that, among the many disadvantages suffered by children cared for by public agencies, low educational achievement has the most serious consequences for their future life chances. Reports that research findings on young people previously in care confirm that education is crucially important for the quality of their adult life. (CFR)

The Massachusetts Career Development Institute (MCDI) refined and expanded the existing program of Workplace Education at the Geriatric Authority of Holyoke (GAH), Massachusetts. The 18-month program provided educational and support services on site to 60 employees at the GAH. Classes were held in English as a second language, adult basic…

The Home Care Challenge was a 4-year National Workplace Literacy Grant project conducted by Carroll Community College in partnership with Carroll Hospice, Carroll Lutheran Village, and Home Call to provide workplace literacy education for health care workers in these agencies. The project's goals were as follows: improving reading fluency, problem…

Detailed information is provided about the characteristics, needs, and service arrangements of 370 elderly persons with mental retardation living in 235 residential facilities operated or licensed by state developmental disabilities agencies. Representative national samples of foster care homes, small group homes, large private facilities, and…

In an effort to conform to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) staff development requirement regarding elder abuse, a learning module was developed. It was designed to be administered to an individual caregiver for the purpose of self-study or to small groups of caregivers using the lecture-discussion format. Following the…

Any discussions about specialized helping environments for children or young people would be incomplete without reference to the relationships found between practices in group care centers and schools. This involves thinking of a child's total environment as a curriculum for teaching competencies and learning outcomes important to daily living.…

The 25th Annual Report to Congress has been designed to showcase the data collected from states and the national studies that make up the Office of Special Education Programs' (OSEP) National Assessment of the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act. To this end, OSEP proposed questions about the characteristics of children and…