Intellectual Disability and Disabilities Chapter

Intellectual Disability

INTELLECTUALDISABILITY|

This paper will look into the subject matter of disability by examining a mental illness' mass media representation, i.e., Intellectual Disability in the movie, The Other Sister that is a 1999 romantic comedy movie. Carla Tate, a 22-year-old American female, has a mild mental deficiency. She goes back home to her rich family in California after getting a certificate from a secluded private boarding school. Carla's parents feel guilty for sending her away and Carl's greatest problem now is coping with her overprotective, snobby mother, Elizabeth. More than anything else, Carla wishes to be responsible and independent. Later on, after pursuing a course in trade school, she meets a guy called Daniel who also has mental deficiency. Carla and Daniel became close, finally having a romantic relationship (Kantor, 2014).

Case Study

The movie, The Other Sister, focuses on Carla who goes back and tries to be independent and responsible in spite of her intellectual disability. Additionally, the film also portrays the realistic reactions of the dealings and functioning of a family having a child that is mentally deficient. Elizabeth, Carla's mother, Elizabeth Tate, is at first presented as an overprotective mother, who is embarrassed by Carla, and who really cared about what everybody thought. She eventually let down her guard, defended Carla, and had a totally new attitude towards making her child happy. Radley Tate, Carla's father, is guilty of excessive drinking and sending away Carla in the first place. He is, however, quite empathetic, always showing his daughter that he loves her, defends her, and sides with her in most decisions. Carla also has sisters who love her no matter what and challenge their mother, telling her that Carla is not a kid any longer and that she can actually be independent. We also get to see that Carla's lover, Daniel, has similar characteristics and loves Carla and she is the only individual who has completely accepted him and actually makes him feel like a human being. On the other hand, other students in the same school as Carla are extremely negative; they make jokes and laugh at Carla and never treat her like any other human being (Kantor, 2014).

Medical Profile

Shea (2012) describes Intellectual disability (ID) as a general phrase for what has initially been defined as a psychological retardation. It is a permanent disorder that is characterized by considerable impairment of adaptive and cognitive development because of abnormalities of the brain function or structure. ID is considered to be a generalized indicator of neurologic dysfunction and not a single entity. Currently, the terminology utilized with regards to ID (mental retardation) is shifting. The phrase mental retardation (MR) is still utilized in several settings, such as by various clinicians, and is present in public and legal policies which establish eligibility for support. The use of the phrase intellectual disability as a direct replacement is, however, increasing. The main reason behind the change is that the phrase mental retardation is seen as being derogatory.

By principle, for every level of intellectual disability, reduced IQ should be accompanied by shortfalls in the adaptive functions that include social, practical and conceptual skills. Social skills include interpersonal skills, social problem solving, and social judgment. Practical skills include occupational skills, ability to safely negotiate the world and access transport, and personal care together with other activities of daily living. Conceptual skills include literacy, numeracy success, language, and understanding of money and time. A person with intellectual disability has delayed development, i.e., the sequence and pattern follow a usual order but a reduced pace and with restrictions with regards to the final achievement level (Rillota, 2012).

According to Kantor (2014), IQ tests are used to measure intellectual disabilities. IDs are also measured by adaptive behavior. Carla displays signs of issues with social development and perhaps attention, but she seems to have a somewhat mild type of intellectual disorder as she proves to be quite good at taking good care of herself as well as in maintaining relationships. In addition, we also observe that Carla has slow speech that is at times intelligible. She is quite honest and most of the times inappropriate when discussing various matters. She gets quite upset and believes that other people are laughing at her. After meeting her lover, Daniel, who has the same characteristics but has a job and is independent, Carla also wants the same kind of responsibility. Mentally deficient people have significantly below average IQ and impairments in their adaptive behaviors. The gravity of MR varied between mild to profound. Daniel and Carla both suffer from a mild impairment that normally entails working and living independently, together with having families. Additionally, language impairments are also related to mental development and at times, individuals in the borderline or mild classification are depicted as "slow."

Treatment

Psychological treatments are commonly utilized for the management of behavioral and mental health problems in individuals with intellectual disabilities. However, the psychotherapeutic approach in individuals having intellectual disabilities is controversial and the evidence base for psychological therapies' effectiveness is very limited. Even though few randomized control trials (RCTs) have offered some proof for the efficiency of psychological interventions, the studies have been generally of poor quality for several reasons. The majority of these studies do not have sufficient numbers of participants, and thus quite difficult to come up with significant conclusions from the results. In spite of these limitations, various psychological interventions…