Parents who experience a developmental disability and their advocates have been working hard to identify system barriers that increase the risk for having these parents' children removed from their homes. Necessary services include intensive case management with a parenting focus, training to CPS workers on developmental disabilities and case planning. A Marketing Research Report Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Anchorage, Alaska. Families who care for their disabled members sometimes need support themselves. Twenty-four hour care leads to family problems and can lead to unnecessary institutionalization.
Respite care is a crucial break for family members who are doing the right thing.
Support groups for parents and siblings of people with mental retardation have proved helpful in developing better relationships and maintaining home situations for people with mental retardation and similar disabilities. Workforce Development High staff turnover, low social status, insufficient training, limited educational and career opportunities, and poor wages undermine the commitment of direct service staff and make it very difficult to recruit, train and retain qualified and committed individuals in direct support roles in disability, mental health, substance abuse treatment and aging fields. The persistence of these conditions is at crisis level. This demonstrates a very poor regard for people with mental retardation and similar disabilities. To that end, the Trust is working with the state Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and provider groups to develop an industrial consortium, hoping for a federal Department of Labor workforce development grant to bolster daily support to a variety of individuals who have disabilities.