In late 1985, The President's Committee on Mental Retardation (PCMR)
spon- sored a National Strategy Conference on Mental Retardation and
Mental Health in Washington, D.C. The purpose of this conference was to
bring together our nation's leadership in the fields of mental
retardation and mental health in order to delineate the state of the art
relative to the diagnosis, care, and treatment of citizens with mental
retardation/mental illness, as well as to chart a national course for
the support and integration of citizens with these challenging needs
into the confluence of family and community life. The President's
Committee on Mental Retardation recognized that citizens with these
needs constitute one of the most underserved and, at times, forgotten
segments of the population. With this in mind, the PCMR called together
govern- mental, professional, and parental representatives from across
the nation to define the nature and extent of the problem, programs, and
services that promise hope for substantive improvement in the quality of
life of citizens with mental retardation/mental illness.