§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Wales whether his Department uses the term mental health to include mental handicap; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Mark RobinsonThe terms mental illness and mental handicap are applied to separate and distinctive mental conditions. It is not the Department's usual practice to use the term mental health to cover mental handicap.
§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of Wales if he will publish the definition of mental handicap which is used for the purpose of the all-Wales strategy for mentally handicapped persons; and on the basis of such definition if he will state how many mentally handicapped people live (a) in institutional care and (b) in the community in Wales.
§ Mr. Mark RobinsonThe all-Wales strategy aims to ensure that the needs of people with a mental handicap are met on an individual basis. Consequently there is no all-embracing, definition of mental handicap, but the report of the all-Wales working party on services for mentally handicapped people, upon which the strategy was founded, estimated incidence by reference to the numbers of school children reported to be educationally subnormal. On this basis there were thought to be some 40,000 mildly mentally handicapped people and 10,000 severely handicapped people, with needs for special services concentrated on the latter group. At 31 December 1985, there were about 3,000 people in institutional care. Precise figures are not available for the numbers living in the community but county joint planning teams are currently collating information as part of the process of implementing the strategy in their areas.