Health Disparities and Mental Retardation*
Conference Report
In February 2002, the Surgeon General released the Report of the Surgeon
General's Conference on Health Disparities and Mental Retardation, which
was held December 5-6, 2001.
CLOSING THE GAP: A National Blueprint
to Improve the Health of Persons with Mental Retardation
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Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®. Webcast
A webcast of the conference is archived at the National Institutes of
Health. To view the webcast, visit the
Past Events page
at NIH Videocasting and search for "mental retardation". The New Freedom Initiative
On June 19, 2001, President George W. Bush announced Executive
Order 13217, "Community Based Alternatives for Individuals with
Disabilities," as part of the New
Freedom Initiative.
*The Office of the Surgeon General is aware that there
is a controversy around the use of the term "mental retardation" and
that self-advocacy groups and professional associations are currently
discussing various alternatives such as "cognitive developmental
disabilities" and "intellectual disabilities." Until a consensus is
reached, and with the goal of drawing attention to the great health
disparities faced by people with what has been traditionally known as
mental retardation in mind, the term "mental retardation" will be used
in official media information on the Surgeon General’s initiative.
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