Problem Based Learning in Mental Retardation

Many students and trainees starting their work with people having mental retardation find it difficult to understand the similarities and uniqueness with which they present and the need for good management. There are a variety of service inputs and models to meet some of the mental health needs of children, young people and adults with learning disabilities. The services for such children are provided by specific Learning Disability psychiatric teams or by challenging behaviour teams. Generic child health and the voluntary sectors provide some elements of the service. However, the above mentioned services do not have a specific remit to look after all the physical and mental health needs of children and young people with learning disabilities and that has created a lack of coherence in service provision. Professionals working with these children, need a basic understanding of the needs, assessment methods and management techniques and this book tries to address those issues. There is some confusion with the terminology used for this client group. The Department of Health adopted learning disability as the term to identify the condition of mental retardation, the term used in the International Classification of Diseases 10th edition ICD-10. The Department of Education uses the term learning difficulty (Education Act 1993) and the American literature uses learning disability to refer to the ICD-10 term specific developmental disorders. In this book, in order to increase consistency we will use the ICD-10 terminology. The book is aimed to be a basic introductory book focussing on essential theory and practice of managing learning disability and mental health issues related to learning disability. The MCQ's and problem solving way of presentation is designed to avoid repetition and to help in focussed learning for examinations.