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Current Implementation of the Act

The Danish Mental Retardation Service is a system which aims at securing the highest possible attention to the unique variety and individuality of the clientele. Being confronted with a developmental continuum covering an IQ range from approximately 0 to 75 and a total life continuum, our Service is forced to have a very high degree of differentiation in terms of residential facilities and professional disciplines involved in a comprehensive care system. No other establishment charged with an educational responsibility has to cover such an extensive field as the Danish National Service for the Mentally Retarded. Accordingly, there is a high degree of differentiation of agencies, as will appear from the enclosed organizational chart (see Fig. 2).

The purpose of a modern service for the mentally retarded is to "normalize" their lives. For children, normalization means living in their natural surroundings, playing, going to kindergartens and schools, etc. Adults must have the right to leave the home of their parents, to be trained and taught, and to pursue employment. Children as well as adults need leisure time and recreation as part of a normal life. We are trying to integrate the retarded into the community in the best possible way. We help them in making use of their abilities, no matter how limited these may be. The mentally retarded have, along with other human beings, a basic right to receive the most adequate treatment, training, and rehabilitation available, and to be approached in an ethical fashion.

To provide the retarded with normal life conditions does not mean that we are oblivious of our duties to offer special care and support. We simply accept them as they are, with their handicaps, and teach them to live with their handicaps. Whatever services and facilities are open to all other citizens must, in principle, also be available to the mentally retarded.

One function of residential services is to provide relief of acute disturbances in the family situation for a client living at home. Severe illness, divorce, etc., may often indicate that a child would benefit from a short-term stay outside his home. It is preferred in such cases not to use the larger institutions but rather a small-size house with no more than 10-20 places and a very warm and intimate atmosphere; here, the mentally retarded child may reside for up to 3 months.

However, to help parents to keep their child at home we offer different forms of assistance, such as counseling in child care and management, and/or financial aid, if necessary. Since it may often be difficult for parents and relatives to have a mentally retarded child at home throughout the whole day, we offer day nurseries, creches, kindergartens or, if these are not available, help in the form of home treatment, education, and training of the child, including physical treatment such as physiotherapy.

To provide parents with leisure time and free evenings we offer babysitting, often by qualified babysitters who know what mental retardation is. At the very least we try to provide such a service to families with a severely retarded child. During parents' illness -- as a rule a great problem when a mother is ill -- there is a possibility of providing homemaker service, i.e., assistance by a specially trained person who takes care of the housewifely duties, including the care of children. We offer weekend stays in kindergartens and similar agencies for the care of children from Saturday to Monday morning.

The mentally retarded of all ages, whether they live at home or in residential facilities, are entitled to recreation in recreation centers, holiday camps, etc. Holiday trips to foreign countries are frequently carried out, especially for those living in residential facilities.

Depending on their conditions, adults live in small homelike environments if treatment in a hospital is not required. Hostels and the like have proved to be a brilliant solution, especially for those who are working in open employment or in sheltered workshops. Hostels of the Danish system take normally a maximum of 20 retarded residents. There are rest homes for those who need care; for the older ones, there are homes for the aged.

Current trends and thought are such that we can expect in the future that children, mainly of mild retardation, will live in small children's homes (school-homes); in units for no more than 8 children (boys and girls mixed) per house; and in single or double rooms. We expect that such children will attend the nearest school operated by the Service on equal terms with retarded children living in their own homes. Also, considerable effort is made to serve children and adults in separate facilities.

Current residential provisions in the Copenhagen area include one boarding school. This type of residential provision was formerly considered necessary for geographical reasons, as it still is in countries with a widely scattered population and poor communication. However, it is clear that in Denmark, the rationale for school-homes will change in emphasis from geographical to social and behavioral considerations.