Journal 10/16

1. Autism: an Analysis of Research, Practice and Policies
2. Systemic Approach to an Empowerement Processs
3. Management of Frustration among Parents with severely Intellectual Impaired

Now in 2016, we are arrived at the 10th edition of EJID

With one release each September, EJID wanted to perpetrate a tradition of bilingualism, at least partially, allowing French and English readers to share news of the world of intellectual disability, often outside the mainstream.

The world of intellectual disability is constantly evolving and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between people’s and families’ need, institutional possibilities and political discourse. In this field, as in the rest of the world, we follow fashions, trends and particular interests in a constant struggle with economic imperative, especially strong since 2007-2008.

We hear a lot of rhetoric about self-reliance, self-determination and inclusion: somtimes it seems to us that these are concepts external if not extraneous to the patient and are largely driven by the need to reduce costs rather than the needs of the people themselves.

We must remain modest because often general statements about autism are lifted from the world of childhood autism, and are forced upon the adult population who is sharing the sae affection, but has needs very distant and problems very different from those of children.

Similarly, we are still lacking a real culture of and sensitivity for the problematic of double diagnostic, where psychiatric problems are superimposed on intellectual disability, and require special clinical and pharmacological treatment, to name but two major issues among many others.

In this context, it is important to keep in mind that the pharmacological treatment of the person with double diagnosis is especially complex in view of the troubling presence of epileptic disorders.

EJID wants to remain a place of exchange where actors in the world of intellectual disability can publish their observations and experiences, that would otherwise be dispersed, with the hope that they will be read.

For this reason, EJID is also open to families who may want to describe their observations and share their doubts.

I therefore wish readers, authors and the scientific and editorial committee as well as the webmaster of EJID to continue our common endeavour for knowledge and mutual help in the interest and support of the person with intellectual disability.

2. Systemic Approach to an Empowerement Process

Family therapy that I will describe is developing around an issue of empowerment in a woman of 35 years, which I call Merline, presenting mild mental retardation and having a very close relationship with his mother. Merline family comes from a disadvantaged environment with low incomes and experiencing an important social isolation, the exchanges with entourages being excessively poor.

Cohabitation with parents is usual for adults with mental retardation. So the separation of the family, which is common during the evolution from adolescence to young adulthood can be experienced as an extremely difficult way in family life. Therefore, many adults with mental retardation live with their parents until the death of the latter with absence or limitation of empowerment process. Parents could not see their child "adult" and sometimes they continued to consider him/her even as a little child, incapable of living outside the parental sphere. I'll present a clinical situation where systemic therapy helped a woman with mental retardation to individualize and empower without it being perceived as a threat for the affective relationship.

Annie Lufungula Lokotolo

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Language: French

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