This paper reviews recent research on the physical and mental health status of homeless single adults and briefly summarizes definitional, sampling, and measurement problems. It presents findings from research examining the physical health status of homeless adults; the data suggest that homelessness places people at greater risk for specific health problems and also complicates treatment. The ...

OBJECTIVE To understand the prevalence and rehabilitation status of autism and mental retardation in China. METHODS Screening test and clinical assessment were conducted for the diagnosis of autism and mental retardation. The assessment included investigation of the histories of medical conditions and development of these two disorders, utilization and needs for the rehabilitation service, an...

BACKGROUND It has been estimated that 9.4% of women giving birth in the United Kingdom have one or more limiting longstanding illness which may cause disability, affecting pregnancy, birth and early parenting. No large scale studies on a nationally representative population have been carried out on the maternity experiences of disabled women to our knowledge. METHOD Secondary analysis of data...

President Kennedy's legislation on community mental health centres has encouraged much detailed planning for comprehensive mental health programmes throughout the United States. Urban areas have special features in this respect, due to the density of population, the reduction of family privacy, the instability of social norms, and the juxtaposition of privilege and deprivation. The problem is t...

BACKGROUND Although the evolution of the prevalence of cerebral palsy is now well documented, much less is known about the evolution of the prevalence of other disabilities such as mental retardation, sensorial defects, autism and psychosis. The aim of this paper is to determine those trends. METHODS A population-based survey was carried out in 1992-1993 in three French 'départments'. All dis...

Three Bills, all with important mental health aspects and all giving opportunities for the development of mental health service to the community, are now before Parliament, viz. the National Assistance Bill, the Children's Bill and the Criminal Justice Bill. The two former link up at several points with each other and preceding legislation, particularly the National Health Service Act, the Disa...

CONTEXT There is strong consensus that caring for an elderly individual with disability is burdensome and stressful to many family members and contributes to psychiatric morbidity. Researchers have also suggested that the combination of loss, prolonged distress, the physical demands of caregiving, and biological vulnerabilities of older caregivers may compromise their physiological functioning ...

Purpose ! We compare the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients and the developmentally disabled in the United States and demonstrate that there were two path-dependent processes with significant qualitative and quantitative differences, ultimately leading to better outcomes for developmentally disabled individuals. 50 Years after Deinstitutionalization: Mental Illness in Contemporary C...