Increasing physicians' awareness and use of community resources for mentally retarded persons

General practitioners must frequently deal not only with the physical health of their mentally retarded patients, but also with their psychological and emotional problems and with difficulties that their families have with coping. In the present study all general practitioners in one city were questioned about their knowledge of mental retardation, their ability to counsel families with a mentally retarded member and their knowledge and utilization of community agencies which provided services for the mentally retarded and their families. The majority of the 400 physicians who satisfactorily completed the questionnaire accepted an obligation to deal with the various problems of the mentally retarded, to counsel their families and to know about and make referrals to available community services. However most also expressed lacks in their knowledge about these various matters. Subsequently, detailed information was sent to them about the available community agencies and then sometime later they were given a second questionnaire concerning their referrals to and advice to parents about the community services. The replies indicated that the physicians now had a much greater awareness of the services available, and that they more regularly made referrals to and advised parents to use these facilities.