Emotional Disorders in the Retarded

In the past, emotional disturbances in the retarded were a frequent cause of institutionalization. For example, a study of emotional disturbance in a sample of institutionalized children with Down's syndrome noted that whereas only 37% of the total sample were emotionally disturbed at the time of the study, 56% ha d displayed significant symptoms of an emotional disturbance at the time of their initial admission to the institution (Menolascino, 1967). One might ask why most of these people who were emotionally upset were sent to an institution for the retarded rather than to a mental health facility. Institutions for the retarded have traditionally employed a meager cadre of mental health professionals, so that admission of the disturbed retarded citizen has often been a life sentence to institutional care, although a brief period of inpatient or outpatient psychiatric care, coupled with revised expectations and increased support in the community, could frequently have prevented institutionalization (Menolascino, 1977). When compared with the incidence of emotional illness in the general population, the retarded are only slightly more at risk. Early prevalence studies (pre-1960) were accomplished primarily