Community care for adolescents with developmental retardation: problems and proposals

The quality of community care provision for adolescents with developmental retardation was examined in a health district with a well-developed community service. This paper describes a representative sample of such adolescents living at home, and is based on data from a wider study of the dependency needs of this group. Although many professionals and agencies were involved with each family during the six months prior to the study, their input was poorly co-ordinated and did not focus on the group's special needs. Psychiatric disorder in the adolescent, and relationship difficulties with the primary carer, were the least well catered for, and these results support previous research findings. The paper concludes with proposals for improving the services in the context of current legislation.