Sexuality Issues for Persons with Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities: One Model for a County-wide Needs Assessment

In response to proactive efforts to develop a model for positive sexuality for consumers with mental retardation and development disabilities, the Pima Council on Developmental Disabilities, a systems advocacy agency, has developed and implemented a needs assessment program to identify problematic behaviors, ranging from socially inappropriate sexual behaviors to those classified as criminal offenses under Arizona Revised Statutes. The outcome of the needs assessment is a planned "clinic without walls" which can synergistically provide a wide range of assessment, diagnostic, treatment and therapy services to consumers at all levels of mental retardation. Strategies for developing and encouraging broad agency participation in the Needs Assessment are discussed and evaluated. Obstacles to data collection are identified and potentially helpful approaches to resolve the obstacles are discussed.