Helping People with Developmental Disabilities Mourn

Helping People with Developmental Disabilities Mourn
Author: Marc A. Markell
Publisher: Companion Press
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2004-06-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1617220949

Frequently, people with developmental disabilities are excluded from bereavement ceremonies when a loved one or friend dies, therefore not receiving the special care needed for comprehending their own feelings of loss. Focusing on creating mourning rituals for special needs people, this guide offers specific rituals and techniques for caregivers to use while helping explain death and dying. With more than 20 examples such as the use of pictures and storytelling or drawing and music, these practical tools can substantially lend to the understanding of grief and sadness for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults and adolescents.

Neurological, Psychiatric, and Developmental Disorders

Neurological, Psychiatric, and Developmental Disorders
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309170931

Brain disordersâ€"neurological, psychiatric, and developmentalâ€"now affect at least 250 million people in the developing world, and this number is expected to rise as life expectancy increases. Yet public and private health systems in developing countries have paid relatively little attention to brain disorders. The negative attitudes, prejudice, and stigma that often surround many of these disorders have contributed to this neglect. Lacking proper diagnosis and treatment, millions of individual lives are lost to disability and death. Such conditions exact both personal and economic costs on families, communities, and nations. The report describes the causes and risk factors associated with brain disorders. It focuses on six representative brain disorders that are prevalent in developing countries: developmental disabilities, epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and stroke. The report makes detailed recommendations of ways to reduce the toll exacted by these six disorders. In broader strokes, the report also proposes six major strategies toward reducing the overall burden of brain disorders in the developing world.

Life Planning for Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Life Planning for Adults with Developmental Disabilities
Author: Judith Greenbaum
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2007
Genre: Developmentally disabled
ISBN: 1572244518

A Comprehensive Guide for Parents and Caregivers As any parent or caregiver of an individual with developmental disabilities can tell you, planning for the future of an adult with intellectual disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, severe autism, or another such condition requires hard work and good advice. While complete independence and self-reliance is out of reach for many adults with developmental disabilities, a productive, stable, and enjoyable life is certainly possible. But government and private support for parents and disabled individualsis scattered and difficult to negotiate. This book is a comprehensive guide to resources you can use to help an adult child or other individual with developmental disabilities for whom you care. The book begins by assessing the quality of life of the adult with a disability. It offers a wealth of suggestions for making that person's life even better. The book then focuses on long-term planning for the individual with a disability and helps answer the question, Who will take care of my child after I'm gone? Learn effective ways to: Assess a disabled individual's strengths and need for support services Develop a plan to for building a busy and productive life Locate good housing and employment opportunities Gather a supportive team of caregivers Advocate for a disabled individual with community agencies

Activities With Developmentally Disabled Elderly and Older Adults

Activities With Developmentally Disabled Elderly and Older Adults
Author: M Jean Keller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 113658109X

Learn how to effectively plan and deliver activities for the growing number of older people with developmental disabilities. Activities With Developmentally Disabled Elderly and Older Adults is an innovative new book that aims to stimulate interest and continued support for recreation program development and implementation among developmental disability and aging service systems. Particularly useful for human service professionals working in the areas of developmental disabilities and aging, this practical volume will also be of interest to researchers, educators, and students interested in recreation services with older adults who are developmentally disabled. The older adult population with developmental disabilities (DD) continues to grow rapidly, yet little is known about their needs and interests. In this book a wide variety of authors share innovative and creative strategies for programming activities with older adults with DD. They focus on diverse issues, services, and programs from researchers, educators, and practitioners, represented varied disciplines. Each chapter demonstrates the diversity that makes serving a growing number of older individuals with DD both challenging and rewarding. Among the wealth of information you will find in Activities With Developmentally Disabled Elderly and Older Adults are discussions on the characteristics of this population and challenge activity professionals to seek innovative program strategies to appropriately serve individuals with DD companionship/friendship, physical functioning, and retirement adjustment issues that confront older adults who have lived with lifelong disabling conditions how a continuum of recreational activities is needed to provide meaningful experiences to elders with developmental disabilities how to design therapeutic recreation programs survey instruments that can be used to gain information about the needs of elderly persons with DD how to find specific programs and services that are age appropriate and foster creative expression and positive self-esteem a rationale for the development of integrated recreation programs

Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2016-11-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309388570

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.