The community deals with the child who has a handicap

Exclusion messages, however subtle, are interwoven into the community of the child who is handicapped. The subsystems of family, religion, neighborhood, education, health care, and financial assistance agencies have good intentions but frequently communicate poorly with the child and the parents. What is meant as a help becomes a hindrance for the child who must adapt to a limitation while continuing to move toward self-esteem, self-sufficiency, and skills that will enhance productivity and employability. No one negative message will destroy a handicapped child: it is the "history of learned inferiority" that cripples the child who is handicapped. Only when able-bodied individuals within the subsystems recognize the cumulative effect of these messages will the community be responsive to the real needs of the child who has a handicap. Nurses, schooled in sensitivity for the person, should resolve to be in the vanguard in this movement, becoming ever more sensitive to the needs of the handicapped. Such a giant step will begin a fresh and long-needed approach toward understanding those needs central to the well-being of the child who resides in the community and is also handicapped.