A Study On Informal Social Support Of Mentally Retarded Persons

The mentally handicapped, also known as mentally retarded persons, have greatdifficulty with social adaptation and integration because of their mental disabilities. At thepresent stage in China, there are a large number of mentally retarded persons but manyshortcomings in social policies and institutional guarantees for them. Except the formal socialsupport, the informal social support, as a new way, creates good conditions for those mentallydisabled people to integrate into society, live in a good living environment and seek for theirown development.The text takes the ZG special education school as an example and probes into itsachievements as well as shortcomings in their social support to the mentally retarded personsby interviewing the organizers, members and correlative individuals and groups so as toresearch into the solutions. The informal social support, including emotional support,educational support and employment support, will greatly improve their abilities to exist andadapt to the society. However, since the social support is informal, there are many problems,such as unstable resources, relative weakness and worrying support agents.The text tries to put forward new ideas and new strategies of promoting the informalsocial support to the mentally retarded persons. That is, guaranteeing the informal socialsupport through formally support and expanding its range. In this way, we can boost thementally retarded persons' integration into the society and ensure their life and furtherdevelopment.