by Voice of the Retarded

About the author: Voice of the Retarded is an advocacy organization for persons with mental retardation and their relatives.

A March 11, 1996, article in the Washington Post (“Move to Close Virginia Institutions for the Retarded Concerns Some Parents,” Eric Lipton) posed this question: Do the remaining institutions have any role in society"

Voice of the Retarded (VOR) strongly opposes total deinstitutionalization, and therefore, answers the above question in the affirmative: Institutions for the mentally retarded are serving a critical role in the care of some mentally retarded individuals.

The Danger of Deinstitutionalizing

The national effort to deinstitutionalize and to create a single option of care (the community) for all individuals is threatening our most severely mentally disabled citizens. In addition to their severe mental limitations, many are also medically fragile. They require the...