Developmental Disabilities (DD)

Guilford Center is responsible for overseeing and maintaining a quality System of Care for consumers of public developmental disabilities services in Guilford County. Some services are provided directly from Guilford Center. Most services are offered to consumers by community agencies. The Center's Best Practice Specialist for Developmental Disabilities provides training and technical assistance to those providers in order to assure best practice treatments.

Person Centered Planning, a process that supports consumer strengths and recovery, has been a focus of Mental Health Reform. The 2005 State Plan identified it as the umbrella under which all planning for treatment, services and supports occurs. Guilford Center’s Peer Support Specialist and Wellness Recovery Action Program Facilitator training was a part of its plan to assure Person-Centered Planning. Guilford Center now has a staff person who is a Person Centered Planning Trainer.

Developmental disability is defined in N. C. General Statutes G.S. 111C-3 (12a) as:

"...a severe, chronic disability of a person which:

• Is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments;
• Is manifested before the person attains age 22, unless the disability is caused by a traumatic head injury and is manifested after age 22.
• Is likely to continue indefinitely;
• Results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following areas of major life activity: self-care, receptive and expressive language, capacity for independent living, learning, mobility, self-direction and economic self-sufficiency; and
• Reflects the person's need for a combination and sequence of special interdisciplinary, or heneric care, treatment, or other services which are of a lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated; or
• When applied to children from birth through four years of age, may be evidenced as a developmental delay."

Mental retardation is defined as:

"... substantial limitations in present functioning. It is characterized by significantly subaverage intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations in two or more of the folowing applicable adaptive skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure and work. Mental retardation manifests before age 18. The following four assumptions are essential to the application of the definition:

• Valid assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity as well as differences in communication and behavioral factors.
• The existence of limitations in adaptive skills occurs within the context of community environments typical of the individual's age peers and is indexed to the person's individualized needs for supports;
• Specific adapted limitations often coexist with strengths in other adaptive skills or other personal capabilities; and
• With appropriate support over a sustained period, the life functioning of the person with mental retardation will generally improve."