Mr. President:

DURING

URING the coming year we shall continue our studies of the three critical program need areas on which we have made recommendations in this report: residential care for the retarded, manpower development and use in mental retardation programs, and the mentally retarded victims of poverty and deprivation.

We expect to have further recommendations in these areas as our studies of programs, needs and trends progress.

We plan also to launch a major inquiry into the area of education for the mentally retarded.

In addition, you will be receiving special reports and papers on progress and needs in research on mental retardation and on a national information center. The latter is planned to bring together research and program information in the mental retardation field and to make that information conveniently and uniformly available to researchers and program planners nationwide.

Also directed to your attention will be a comprehensive monograph on the history, development, status and needs in residential care of the retarded. This monograph is the chief supporting document for the recommendations on residential care made in this report.

We will report to you from time to time on progress in several continuing studies.

One of these studies is attempting to define the economic impact and cost of mental retardation. The aim of this study is to develop a body of economic information through which cost factors in mental retardation may be established for the guidance of agency planners, valid cost comparisons made, and viable program projections made.

Another study is developing guidelines for the use of model cities planners in incorporating designs for mentally retarded persons living and working in communities of the future.

All of these areas were identified in our 1967 report as having critical needs. Our work during the past year has carried forward from general de

scription of those major need areas into the deep and detailed studies whose outcomes are reported in these pages or will reach you in later papers

This 1968 report, as did its predecessor, suggests actions to combat mental retardation that can and should be taken at all levels of the nation by both public and private agencies Retardation is a problem that can strike any family in the nation Every individual, every agency can help to do something effective about the problem. Our fundamental belief is that the nation's ultimate success in the attack on mental retardation will be won by a broad cooperative effort in which professional specialists and citizen volunteers work together to combat retardation and its causes through programs in health, education, rehabilitation community planning and organization. social service and research

The field of mental retardation, with your steady support. President Johnson, has crossed the threshold of major change and advance. Some ways to foster growth and learning in even the most severely retarded have been found. The human cells secrets of programming for the unborn are being pried out. The most critical period for learning has been found to be years before the time when formal education of children begins. Developing successful instruction for the retarded has enabled us to discover steps in the learning process that were unsuspected before. And analysis of work and work patterns in order to train retarded workers has shown that these workers can do more than previously thought and that the elements of even complex jobs can often b. rearranged for effective performance by retarded workers.

It is crucial, therefore, that the momentum of interest and action developed in the problem of mental retardation in this decade be held and intensified.

We are grateful. Mr. President, for your continued personal inspiration and guidance to us and to the many others who are working on behalf of the retarded. The support of your Office is a key force in helping the nation bring on the new day when most mental retardation can be prevented and the remaining retarded individuals can be helped to be contributors to the common good.