Rehabilitation programs for adults were increasingly available in the community.

The major approach to family support in the 1950s was parent counseling. According to the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation in 1962, “Parent counseling is now being provided by private physicians, clinic staffs, social workers, nurses, psychologists, and school personnel. Although this service is still in an experimental stage of development, it offers bright prospects for helping parents to meet their social and emotional problems.”

The major alternative to life in the family, however, was not in the community. In 1940, approximately 100,000 people lived in institutions. 

Photo courtesy William Bronston, M.D.