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The Warren City Schools, Warren, Ohio, has initiated a novel program for learning incentive for slow learning pupils of intelligence quotient between 50 and 79. Through our program the school district obtained 76.4 acres of land and 10 buildings from the Youngstown Family Housing Annex, Trumbull County, Ohio. There are farm ponds, vocational shops, and programs for conservation and horticulture. An experiment in providing summer garden plots for these pupils was significantly successful.

These are not isolated instances. As of June 30, 1963, 70 deed transfers had been made for services for the mentally retarded and physically handicapped which was 6.7 percent of our entire transfers.

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

The Food and Drug Administration, responsible for the overall safety and efficacy of drugs, maintains a vigilant concern with the effects of drugs on infants and children. This preventative aspect of the agency's statutory mission is exemplified by the work of the Investigational New Drug Branch of the Bureau of Medicine which emphasizes the importance of determining safety of drugs in women of childbearing age, and monitors the experimental use of new drugs in phases I through III of their testing.

Unfortunately, few products are known to be efficacious in the treatment of mental retardation. The Food and Drug Administration has the authority and responsibility to initiate regulatory proceedings against drugs or devices represented to be useful in the prevention, treatment or amelioration of mental retardation which are not effective for such purposes. Furthermore, recommended dosages of drugs, food, and supplements or food additives are being constantly reevaluated in the light of new information. A recent Food and Drug Administration proposal, if adopted will reduce the amount of Vitamin D that may be added to food products. This action stemmed from a report relating the level of vitamin D intake in sensitive pregnant women to the induction of hypercalcemia, mental retardation and congenital heart disease in their offspring.

It is important for the Food and Drug Administration to keep abreast of research that indicates any untoward effect of chemicals used in foods, drugs, cosmetics, and household chemicals. To this end, close liaison has been established with the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the pharmaceutical industry, in exchanging information concerning adverse reactions. The evaluation, cataloging and retrieval of this information, for ready consumer protection, is being undertaken by advanced data processing methods.

Purpose

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

The social security program today is firmly established as the basic method in the United States of assuring income to individuals and families who suffer a loss of earnings when workers retire, become disabled or die.

Historical development

As originally conceived in 1935, the social security program was to have provided only retirement benefits to aged workers. In 1939 benefits for dependents and survivors were added, and benefits became payable in 1940. Protection against long-term total disability was provided by the 1956 amendments and in 1965 disability was broadened and health insurance benefits for the aged added. Since 1949 there have been five general benefit increases, in recognition of the fact that prices and wages have gone up.

Economic impact

The mentally retarded figure significantly among social security beneficiaries, particularly among dependents who have been continuously disabled since childhood. The problem of mental deficiency is a major factor in more than 65 percent of the beneficiary group having disabilities which began in childhood. It is the primary diagnosis in about half of these cases. In fiscal year 1965 an estimated 124,000 adult mentally retarded beneficiaries received $70,900,000 in social security benefits. The number of mentally retarded children under age 18 who receive payments as dependents of retired disabled, or deceased workers is unknown. The known mentally retarded beneficiaries range in age from 18 to over 5 with at least half being over 35.

The social security law has special importance for the parent of a mentally retarded child because it can provide a source of assured income where the

parent is entitled to social security retirement or disability insurance benefits, or the parent was insured at the time of death. If the parents are dead, a relative who has demonstrated a continuing interest in the beneficiary's welfare, a welfare agency or a legal guardian may be chosen as representative payee to handle the benefit funds and plan for using them in behalf of the beneficiary.

A representative payee receives social security benefits in trust for the beneficiary and, as a trustee, is held accountable for the way in which he uses the benefits.

Activities and achievements

All district offices of the Social Security Administration maintain a referral service to other programs and services of both public and private agencies and organizations. Giving information about these programs and agencies is an essential part of SSA's service to the public. Disabled persons applying for disability benefits under social security are promptly referred to the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation of the end that the maximum number may be rehabilitated into productive activity or to a level of self-care. Information and referral service is also provided to nonbeneficiaries or applicants who inquire about services at social security district offices.

The Social Security Administration has participated in the program for employment of the mentally retarded since its inception. In 1965, 21 mentally retarded persons were hired in GS-1 positions located in central offices in Baltimore and in district offices and payment centers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Kansas City. These employees perform routine, repetitious clerical duties such as duplicating machine operation, stapling, envelope stuffing, mail opening, and numerical and alphabetical breakdown of material to be filed. All are performing in a highly satisfactory manner.

In the area of public information the Social Security Administration developed and gave wide distribution to a pamphlet entitled "Social Security: What It Means for the Parents of a Mentally Retarded Child." The pamphlet was recently revised to encompass provisions of the 1965 Social Security Amendments and is now ready for the printer.

In the future

The Social Security Administration is preparing for a nationwide survey of representative payees (persons designated by the Administration to receive and manage social security benefits on behalf of minor children or adults found incapable of handling funds in their own best interests). The study will be undertaken in two phases, the first to cover adults, including adult beneficiaries disabled in childhood, and the second to cover child beneficiaries under age 18. Although the basic study objective is an evaluation of the Administration's policies and procedures for carrying out the representative payee program, the survey will gather some data of general socioeconomic interest. So far as childhood disability beneficiaries affected by mental retardation are concerned, the survey findings will provide information about their living arrangements (including institutionalization), resources, need for health and welfare servces, etc. In the second phase of the study, similar data will be gathered for minor children, and the survey will attempt to identify the incidence of mental retardation among children drawn in the sample and among their siblings.

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Obligations for programs on mental retardation 1-Continued

Social Security Administration:

Estimated benefit payments from trust funds..

Trust fund obligations incurred to adjudicate claims of beneficiaries..

1 Figures in parentheses under Social Security Administration are for obligations from
the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance trust funds. All others are obligations
from appropriated general funds.

2 Beginning with 1965 represents that part of the funds listed which have been identified
by the Public Health Service as being used specifically and exclusively for mental retar-
dation activities. The remaining amounts are for activities where mental retardation
hot relevance and can be expected to benefit directly, but where mental retardation is
the exclusive focus.

Represents programs authorized by the Mental Retardation Facilities and Commu
nity Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963; namely, construction of university,
affiliated facilities for mentally retarded, and assistance to States for construction of

mental retardation facilities. Not possible to estimate for regular hospital construction
program.
Exact information is not available on the costs due to mentally retarded people who
are receiving public assistance because data secured does not single out this one cause as
a factor of disability or dependency. However, it is known that mental retardation is
an important cause of disability for those receiving aid to the permanently and totally
disabled under the Federal-State public assistance program. The amounts shown here
are estimates based on a constant percentage of total payments under this part of the
program.
Includes $10,300,000 for mental retardation under proposed supplemental.

These amounts are shown as nonadd items since they are derived by transfer from
funds available to the Department for mental retardation activities.

ACTIVITIES IN AGING

(Report compiled by the Administration on Aging)

PREFACE

The outstanding feature of 1965 for older people was the unprecedented amount of legislation on their behalf passed by the Congress and approved by the President. Research, surveys, and program experience during recent years have brought the circumstances and needs of older people into increasingly clearer relief. The administration and the Congress have been prompt in recognizing these needs and in shaping action to meet them. Fortunately, the economy has grown at a rapid pace, thus affording financial feasibility to the Nation's efforts to serve its older people.

The legislative advances during 1965 included: passage of the Older Americans Act (Public Law 89-73) creating an Administration on Aging and establishing three new grant programs; the Social Security Amendments (Public Law 89–97) increasing benefits and providing a program of health insurance and increasing medical cost payments for low-income elderly; the Heart Disease-Cancer-Stroke Amendments (Public Law 89-293) to futher knowledge of and provide treatment for these major killers of older people; statutory extension of the economic opportunity program to older people (Public Law 89-253); liberalization of the manpower development and training program (Public Law 89-15); and the Higher Education Act (Public Law 89-329) with its provision for support of adult education opportunities for older people.

In addition, significant extensions and increases of support were given to other programs which are addressed in part to older people. These include stepping up of vocational rehabilitation programs (Public Law 89-333); staffing for mental health centers (Public Law 89-105); construction of health research facilities (Public Law 89-115); training health personnel (Public Law 89-290); and extension of community health programs (Public Law 89-109).

Ever since the White House Conference on Aging in 1961, Federal, State, and local agencies have been concerned with the paucity of facilities, programs, and services for older people. The 1965 legislation affords badly needed new resources and impetus. The following highlights from the agency reports submitted herewith reveal that every unit of the Department is moving forward in the field of aging and striving to implement the new legislation with all possible speed.

HIGHLIGHTS OF ACTION

Creation of the Administration on Aging in October 1965 as a separate unit gives the Department new emphases and responsibilities with respect to its programs on behalf of older people. The new Administration became operational as soon as funds were made available and began to carry out the missions assigned to it. Its functions include providing a focal point within the Government for activities in aging; administering a program of grants to States and communties and two programs of direct grants for research, demonstration, and training; serving as a national clearinghouse for information in aging; providing technical consultation to States, communities, and organizations; and assisting the Secretary.

Forty-six States and territories have designated agencies to carry out the programs authorized under the Older Americans Act; 19 of which have had their State plans approved by the Commissioner on Aging and are receiving their allotments. More than 100 requests have been filled for announcements and applications regarding the research and demonstration and training grants programs.

The foster grandparent program, initiated by the Administration on Aging and being conducted by it under an agreement with the Office of Economic Opportunity, is now being extended and is pointing the way toward similar programs which will enable older people to serve their communities.

The Food and Drug Administration is continuing its efforts to protect older people against harmful or useless drugs, vitamins, nutritional supplements, therapeutic devices, and other deceptions which are estimated to cost them millions of dollars each year. The Administration is concerned with why people are susceptible to false claims and with how to offset them through consumer education.

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