Preventing restrictive placements through community support services.

A policy evaluation of Community Support Services, an assistance group created by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to prevent admission of individuals with developmental disabilities to large state facilities, was presented. The model of these out-reach services was described. Program evaluation data were presented. The possible effect of Community Support Services on admissions to large state facilities, characteristics of individuals served compared to those waiting for these services, cost-benefit issues of operating Community Support Services, and community service providers' satisfaction with these services were discussed. Issues related to the establishment and operation of Community Support Services were also presented.

Investigation of mortality and morbidity associated with severe self-injurious behavior.

A retrospective study was conducted to determine whether severe self-injurious behavior was associated with shortened lengths of life or greater sensory impairments for Minnesota Regional Treatment Center residents with developmental disabilities. The client records of 209 institutionalized individuals who died between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1989, were reviewed. The data revealed that the 29 clients who exhibited severe self-injury did not live significantly shorter lives compared to matched cohorts without self-injury. However, those clients with severe self-injury were found to have a significantly higher incidence of vision and hearing impairments than did the matched cohorts. Implications of these findings were discussed.

Counseling Army reservists and their families during Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

The hardships of war affect all members of society. Those most acutely affected are service members and their families. Civilian service personnel mobilized within an active reserve component experience a disruption of life style which can cause stress. Service members are trained to be effective soldiers, but very little training is provided to service members or their families on the wartime stresses they face. The psychiatric army reserve unit based in Minneapolis developed a family support program for three phases of wartime stress: (1) pre-deployment, (2) deployment, and (3) reunification and sustainment. Recommendations are provided for family support in future wartime situations.

Ongoing use of an affective rating scale in the treatment of a mentally retarded individual with a rapid-cycling bipolar affective disorder.

Empirically tracking cyclic variations in the behavior of mentally retarded individuals with bipolar affective disorders is difficult because disturbances in mood are difficult to operationally define and quantify. The following report presents a case study in which a moderately retarded man's mood and energy were rated by direct care staff who completed a mood rating scale two times each day. The resulting weekly summaries of the data were plotted on a graph which indicated the cyclic fluctuations in symptom areas related to his bipolar disorder. This information was of great value in assessing therapeutic interventions and in designing habilitative activities congruent with shifts in the behavioral patterns.

Stereotypic behavior of mentally retarded adults adjunctive to a positive reinforcement schedule.

Stereotypic behavior is one of the more common disturbed behaviors displayed by people who are developmentally disabled. This study evaluated the indirect effects on stereotypic frequency when the value of a concurrent fixed-interval reinforcement schedule for adaptive behavior was varied. Three profoundly mentally retarded adults performed a simple adaptive task reinforced under a fixed-interval schedule. The reinforcement schedule value was varied from fixed-interval 15 to 90, and 180 seconds after schedule control under each condition was demonstrated. The dependent measure was the frequency of stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behavior increased in direct relation to the interval length. The theoretical and practical implications of treating stereotypies as an adjunctive behavior partially controlled by the reinforcement frequency for adaptive behaviors are discussed.