4. Isslues in the assessment of the health status, needs, and treatment of the mentally and physically handicapped.

The importance of information for evaluating the health status, needs, and progress of the mentally and physically handicapped has been consistently argued. However, the varied nature of handicapping conditions, often aggravated by the presence of multiple conditions, the extended periods of treatment, the diverse professional groups involved, and the multiple uses and users of data pose difficult problems for uniform data collection. For these heterogenously disabled populations whose conditions are generally not fully remediable, it is especially important to have 1) data on functional ability, both current and potential, and 2) information characterizing the nature of the care environment in terms of its social and educational stimulus, barriers to functional development, and availability of supportive services in the community. In both areas, considerable work has been done to develop measurement instruments for the institutional and noninstitutional handicapped.