Introduction

Abstract

The last ten years have seen a revolution in thinking about mentally handicapped people. A glance at any bibliography shows what a volume of new thinking was generated in the 1970s. Of course pioneers like Jack Tizard and Albert Kushlick were pointing the way in the 1960s, but their work — establishing principles, creating models, and planning comprehensive systems of service — came into its own in the 1970s. The Ely Hospital Enquiry (1969) gave enormous new drive to what has now become a movement, disturbing the public conscience, forcing governments to think afresh about statutory services, attracting the attention of the media, and giving new hope to mentally handicapped people and their families. The National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults and the Campaign for Mentally Handicapped People have been highly effective in ensuring that those most directly concerned learned about new developments, and had a concerted strategy for getting them introduced into practice.