Understanding Mental Retardation As A Disability

What is Disability and its Impact on Individuals and Society

Question:

Discuss about the Critical Analysis of Case Study on Disability.

Disability is termed as a disadvantageous condition that may pertain to cognitive approach, developmental process, intellectual potency and mental, physical and sensory health. Such conditions considerably affect an individual’s life and might be present since birth that is congenital or can be caused during life time due to accidents or other psychosomatic complications. Disability is a broader term that encompasses impairment of various forms. These include participation prohibition, activity restriction and difficulty in carrying out general tasks. Disability is not only associated with one individual’s limitation but it also reflects on the relationship between the individual and the society he or she lives in. Disability is a much deliberated issue. It carries different meaning for different communities. The term may point towards physical and mental anomalies that can be addressed by the respective medical care (Shakespeare, 2013).

The social model of disability focuses more on the social constraints and how the surroundings society perceives the disability condition and concerned quality of life. The way to define disability was of prime concern in UK and US in 1970s and at that time the medical model used to persist as the sole mode of explanation of such conditions. Debates have prevailed in the community and legal guidelines were set up to acknowledge disability conditions and therefore make necessary provisions within the scope of formal healthcare (Campbell & Oliver, 2013). There are special benefit packages as well for the disabled people in the sector of private health care. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) generated by World Health Organization makes a distinction in between the body function and body structure. Disability in the structure or function can be defined as involving a loss or other significant variation from certain points generally known as population standards, which might change from time to time (Fulcher, 2015). Activity can be defined as the implementation of an action or task. This particular essay focuses on the understandable facets of mental retardedness as a potential disability up on choosing it from the memoir, the influence of mental impairment on personal and family life, influence of mental impairment in social life and roles of human service professionals. The human service professionals who work in this field are required to be humanitarian in their perspective and aspect.

Mental retardation is an everlasting condition that can be characterized by sub average intelligence. It can cause limitations in adaptive function and the learning process of a person. Persons suffering from mental retardation might be able to stay freely in the society. They can also attain various levels of job which mainly depends upon the severity. The increase in the severity causes the increase in need of training which will help in support to complete the daily tasks. This part describes about the health conditions of people living with different types of mental retardation. Mental retardation happens in all races and societies, despite the fact that there is a bigger pervasiveness in general among the male persons than ladies. Roughly 1-3% of the populace is affected among all. The greater part (around 85%) is named having mild seriousness, around 10% of cases have moderate and approximately 4% of people is having extreme mental retardation. The time of beginning normally relies upon the cause for the mental retardation. Generally, mental retardation can be caused by any circumstances which disturb the development of brain during birth or in childhood.

Causes, Types, and Associated Health Conditions of Mental Retardation

Mental retardation unless congenital can be caused due to several factors which include Down syndrome, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, lead poisoning, fanconi anemia and phenylketoneuria. There could be some procedural malfunction in case of in vitro fertilization that might lead to mental retardation later on (Sandin et al, 2013). Down syndrome is the most common mental disorder in US and it happens due to delay in development and chromosomal aberration. Hydrocephalus is a brain condition in which water gets accumulated in the brain causing retardation in brain function. Cerebral palsy is a consortium of symptoms that affects muscular movement and associated coordination (Werne & Stawski, 2012). Lead is a toxic metal and very poisonous affecting the brain cells in negative manner. Fanconi anemia is responsible for bone marrow failure. The bone marrow is responsible for generation of three types of blood cells. Some mental retardedness can be congenital and is associated with the brain volume during the birth and the parts or lobes of the brain. It may also appear during the developmental stages of a kid and the upbringing in a closely knit social environment (Brereton, Tonge & Einfeld, 2006). Specifically, potential causes include, chromosomal deficiency such as Down’s syndrome, inherited disorders such as Fragile X syndrome, metabolism defects, injury in brain or infection due to insufficiency in oxygen during birth, premature birth, low weight during birth, malnutrition of the fetus, drug or alcohol misuse during pregnancy, infections from the mother and severe emotional abuse. Unfortunately, in many cases, no particular reason can be identified despite the fact that the probability of recognizing the specific reason which increases the seriousness of mental retardation.

Mental illness can be aggravated by the occurrence of physical problems. The case study in the memoir shows the subject had some developing problems in the childhood that might have alienated from other usual community people and general fondness in upbringing. When the subject was about three, she had signs of malnutrition (Rosenberg & Abbeduto, 2013). Though not skeletal, she was blue and would bruise at the slightest touch. Her eyelashes would come out in large quantities, and my gums bled. Her parents thought she had leukemia, and took for a blood test. The doctor took some blood from ear-lobe. She was intrigued by a multicolored cardboard wheel the doctor had given me. She also had hearing tests because, although she mimicked everything, it appeared that she was deaf. Intellectual disability is also another aspect of mentally retarded people along with other associated factors. Intellectual disability is also alternatively known as general learning disability and mental retardation. It is a disorder of neural development can start from the very onset of childhood. It can affect intellectual and adaptive functioning. The general living condition becomes pathetically severe (Patja at al., 2000). As it can be seen in the case study where the subject used to get called alternatively as Polly or Dolly. Dolly has faced discrimination from her mother as a retarded or troubled child. She was neglected in a dysfunctional family where accurate level of affection was not provided to the child. Her grandmother’s demeanor was to be perceived by her as friendly and not threat some. All these aspects contribute to the psychosomatic condition of the concerned individual that has imparted considerably to the generation of psychological intricacy from the very beginning. There are some aspects associated with the mental health illness and peer pressure. Peer pressure is the term that can be applied in cases where people of same age and background are in to consideration. The peers in this case with respect to Dolly or Polly are the elder brothers and the cousins. It was eminent that though the subject was comfortable with some of her cousins but she was not equally sociable and lovable by her antiques as compared to them. She was comfortable with her aunt who was fond of brushing her hair. But in this regard also, her personal considerations regarding her aunt poses some questions regarding the psyche of them child as she evaluates the situation in a manner of aberration. The mystic and fancy characters used to attract the case study subject as mentioned within the case study. This gives an insight to the fondness of the subject and clearly suggests that she was unable to cope up with common day pressures. The entire analysis of the case study that will be further elaborated in the later section will further have an insight into the problem constraints of the case study.

The Effect of Mental Retardation on Personal, Family, and Social Life

Mental illness may strike a person or a group of persons in various ways. Mental illness can be dormant as childhood factors in the concerned individual or that can an added disadvantageous toll of chemical abuse. Mental illness simply tells that the brain orientation is no proper that can be perceived natural by the ambience society (Zigler & Balla, 2013). The quality of life of the affected family becomes the primary concern (Verdugo et al., 2012). The case study suggests that the family had a point of conflict regarding the future of the subject who was not being able to cope up with the surrounding’s development. The father wanted her to stay at home while her mother wanted to send her to an institution. This gives an insight into the dilemma of the family members of the patients. The family members become co addict in their so called own right after being associated with the diseased person for long and think in commune with the special need of the subject (Macklin & Gaylin, 2013). There should be special counseling in this regard required for the family members as well.

There can be two aspects in this regard. One is how mental retardedness affects the ambient social life and how the social influences aggravate the mental health condition. Mental retardation can be perceived in nationalistic perspective as well in which it can be argued that mentally retarded population in turn turns the country weak. Mentally challenged people cannot go to war and their brains’ processing power will also be less. So they will always b e regarded as someone inferior kind. Mentally challenged people can be best example of brain functional model.  During the past 40 to 50 years there have been numerous changes in our society with respect to the management and treatment of people with disabilities. In addition, there has been much advancement in medical care (Mefford, Batshaw & Hoffman, 2012). As a result, most of these individuals reside in the community rather than institutions and depend upon community-based private practitioners for oral health care. Some schools of thoughts suggest that brain damage is not the sole cause of mental retardation but rather the environmental and social factors do also play crucial role in this regard. There have been new terms proposed for the mentally retarded people which are focusing more on intellectual disability and logical reasoning capability. The level of anxiety associated is always detrimental (String et al., 2012). This difficulty is more aggravated with social stigma. The actual make up of the brain and mind of a mentally retarded person is extremely susceptible and fragile to external expletives. This complicates the situation. The toll of mentally retarded people on a nation or society is no less than a magnanimous burden. It can affect the natural growth and progression of a civilized society at the same time the respective civilized society also has to be empathetic to its inhabitants focusing on the extractable qualities of such individuals which might affect the society in a broader perspective in future. The social life of the family as seen in the case study was totally plundered as they were indecisive about Polly or Dolly and could not understand the propensity of the subject relating to her early physical complications and lack of mental growth and conviviality during childhood.

The Role of Human Services Professionals in Addressing Mental Retardation

The staffs who work in this sector to help mentally impaired patients with or without additional physical difficulty and their families are supposed to be trained specially. A special training usually gets provided to the staffs so that they can understand the special needs of the patients they are dealing with. They are usually taught to be extra cautious and humanitarian in making considerations and decisions as the persons who are disabled are highly susceptible to mental agony and bad behaviors (Bar off & Oley, 2014). The staffs are usually given and should be given a light concept of the underlying reason of the mental illness so that they can understand the logical basis of the requirements of the patients. This further education to the staffs working in this field also helps in educating patient parties about the possible steps or outcomes in the situations having such specific needs. This in turn helps to be empathetic to the subject patients and thus neglect the ill convention of stigma that is pervasive around this kind of people. Mental retardation is a permanent condition, however the majority of individuals with mental retardation can get complete, individualized projects that are aimed for instructing the abilities that are important to build their level of freedom: reading, composing, and essential math, dealing with individual needs such as dressing, washing; speaking with others, home living such as cooking, cleaning the house; social aptitudes and wellbeing and security. Social projects are likewise imperative for the person with mental impediment to increase confidence. In early adulthood, treatment is additionally guided at learning professional aptitudes to help business; contribution in the workforce enhances versatile abilities and the achievement of group living. Enthusiastic help for the family is additionally a vital piece of treatment. The workers who are professionals also need to come out of their professional area sometimes and be attached personally to the patient who seeks tender human sentiments in most of the time (Emerson, 2012). This kind of profession is included in some form of social service as well. The workers must keep in mind that their job profile is a generous or charitable profession not aiming at the monetary rewards and perks solely. Hence, they need to consider it as an alternative form of social service.

This can be thus concluded that mentally retarded patients are very much vulnerable to external environments harsh factors. They might develop additional physical abnormalities as well that requires to be treated by medical care. The prime role in making lives of these people better is of family members who are needed to be educated accordingly. The professional workers play a vaster role addressing such problems on bigger platforms like civic society. Humanitarian qualities and an empathetic mind are the main requirements to solve riddles associated with mental health problems.

References:

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Macklin, R., & Gaylin, W. (2013). Mental retardation and sterilization: A problem of competency and paternalism. Springer Science & Business Media.

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Sandin, S., Nygren, K. G., Iliadou, A., Hultman, C. M., & Reichenberg, A. (2013). Autism and mental retardation among offspring born after in vitro fertilization. Jama, 310(1), 75-84.

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Verdugo, M. A., Navas, P., Gómez, L. E., & Schalock, R. L. (2012). The concept of quality of life and its role in enhancing human rights in the field of intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 56(11), 1036-1045.

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Zigler, E., & Balla, D. (Eds.). (2013). Mental retardation: The developmental-difference controversy. Routledge.