Abstract
It is well known that the health status of American Indians is below national averages and has been for many years. Identified health difficulties include a pattern of social problems, poverty, and disease that is unparalleled among other ethnic and racial minorities in the United States. The disabled American Indian, however, faces additional disadvantages in the form of major barriers to care and rehabilitation services. Further, the incidence of several serious disabling conditions among some tribes is thought to be well above that reported for the United States population as a whole. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), bacterial meningitis, otitis media, diabetes, accidentsltrauma, alcoholldrug abuse, and mental and emotional disorders cause disabilities among Indians at significantly higher rates than among non-Indians. Major disabilities include seizure disorder, developmental delay, language and speech delay, mental retardation, pulmonary disorders, vision problems, hearing loss, trauma from accidents, diabetesrelated disabilities, and alcoholism. The severity of each problem, however, varies from one Indian group to another. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effect (FAE), disabling conditions which have been identified and categorized only since 1973, consist of a group of physical and developmental abnormalities present in infants, which are caused by maternal
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