Psychosocial Factors in Reintegration

Abstract

This group discussion centered on psychosocial factors in the reintegration of the medically exceptional child. The issue of labeling was the focus. Several times allusions were made to Dr. Bartholome’s point that health care providers create labels for patients. These labels, terms that emphasize different needs or lend themselves to stereotyping, can be barriers to assimilating the student into the school environment. When labels are overemphasized, children and their families experience the discomfort of enforced social distance, though the enforcement may be subtle. School personnel, despite specialized training, may create this distance as a result of the anxiety attached to their perception of these labels. This may impede their ability to help the classmates of the patient/student to accept him as an individual unencumbered by labels.