POPULATION'S NEEDS AS A CONDITION FOR PROFESSIONAL INTERVENTION:: AN ANALYSIS IN RELATION TO MENTAL RETARDATION

• Autor(a) principal: Melchiori, Lígia Ebner
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: de Souza, Deisy das Graças, Botomé, Silvio Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Psicologia (Universidade de Brasília. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/revistaptp/article/view/17105
• topic: Deficiência mental; Planejamento institucional; Necessidades da população; Metas de intervenção; Metacontingências; Mental retardation; Institutional planning; Population's needs; Goals of intervention; Metacontingencies

The purpose ot mis study was to propose some directionsand criteria for professional inten-entions related to mental retardation in asmall county, based on a behavioral analysis. The notion of a three-termcontingency was used in order to: 1) analyse data about the communityand their problems considered as the fundamental components of theenvironment which should exert stimulus control on the behavior ofprofessionals and agencies; 2) specify the relevant changes that could beconceived as solutions for the problems detected (the expectedconsequences of interventions); 3) propose classes of actions(interventions) which seemed appropiate for promoting the expectedchanges in the problems initially described. Data about life conditions inthe county (obtained in a previous descriptive study) provided the cues fora better characterization of the problem and pointed out some desirabledirections for change: better life conditions for the families, moreeducation, better jobs, more access to information, services and leisure.Based on these directions, several classes of actions were proposed,which should be implemented by multiple public agencies, someeducational (for example, professional training not only for the mentallyretarded, but also for other members of their families and the communityas a whole), some medicai and even social. On the other hand, multipleagencies' actions should be integrated at a higher organizational levei andthat could be the main responsability of the City Hall, as a mean ofassuring all the other leveis. For example, the governmental actions wouldrequire a data based system and its administration in order to keep updateinformation on the population needs and the ongoing interventions as well.The concept of metacontingencies (Glen, 1987) would help in theunderstanding of general goals, including among other things, thereduction of the incidence of mental retardation in the county.