a place for those who have Down's syndrome

[chrysanthemum]

What do you call the place that takes care of the children with Down's syndrome and mental retardation or any other developmental disability whose parents can't take care of?
Thanks

 

[Rover_KE]

In the UK they're called care homes.

Rover

 

[riquecohen]

The type of facility would depend on the level of care that the individual required. In the past, institutional care was frequent; nowadays more enlightened care is generally given in group homes or foster homes.
BTW, Down syndrome is heard more frequently than Down's syndrome (in the US.)

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE, it's Down's Syndrome.

 

[Barb_D]

Yeah, I was surprised to read that too. I've only ever seen Down's Syndrome.

 

[Raymott]

It was always Down's Syndrome when I was at medical school. That is the traditional form of such syndromes, etc: Tourette's Syndrome, Alzheimer's Disease, Addison's Disease, Hodgkin's Disease.
It's only with the rise of the internet, and the name of illnesses being taken over by self-help groups, etc. that the simple forms like Down Syndrome, TS, Alzheimers, etc. have occurred. The apostrophe 's' is too much for the average lay person.

 

[riquecohen]

It was always Down's Syndrome when I was at medical school. That is the traditional form of such syndromes, etc: Tourette's Syndrome, Alzheimer's Disease, Addison's Disease, Hodgkin's Disease.
It's only with the rise of the internet, and the name of illnesses being taken over by self-help groups, etc. that the simple forms like Down Syndrome, TS, Alzheimers, etc. have occurred. The apostrophe 's' is too much for the average lay person.

It seems to me that the apostrophe 's' makes it easier for the average lay person. As you pointed out, this is the usual form used for other conditions. Perhaps I shouldn't have said that Down is more frequently heard than Down's, but it is more frequently used by medical and mental health professionals in the US.

 

[emsr2d2]

I think there are a lot of people who don't realise that an apostrophe is used in the name of these conditions. They are named after people hence the apostrophe but I am fairly certain that many people think that they are actually called:

Downs Syndrome
Alzheimers
Tourettes

 

[riquecohen]

An article in today's New York Times about the revision of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders referred several times to Asperger syndrome. When the word syndrome was omitted, reference was made to Asperger's.

 

[Rover_KE]

In normal speech, few people take the trouble to articulate both Ss in 'Down's syndrome', so it sounds exactly like 'Down syndrome.'

Rover

 

[Raymott]

In normal speech, few people take the trouble to articulate both Ss in 'Down's syndrome', so it sounds exactly like 'Down syndrome.'

Rover

But still, most people who were saying Down's Syndrome would linger over the 's', giving it a longer value, whereas a person who was was saying Down Syndrome would not. To me, they sound different, regardless of whether two 's' are articulated.
Do people often misinterpret Times Square or Myers Street, for example? Perhaps they do.

 

[5jj]

Do people often misinterpret Times Square [...]? Perhaps they do.

I did, until I first saw it written down.

 

[Amigos4]

BTW, Down syndrome is heard more frequently than Down's syndrome (in the US.)

The following explanation is from Wikipedia:

In 1975, the United States National Institutes of Health convened a conference to standardize the nomenclature of malformations. They recommended eliminating the possessive form: "The possessive use of an eponym should be discontinued, since the author neither had nor owned the condition."[15] Although both the possessive and non-possessive forms are used in the general population, Down syndrome is the accepted term among professionals in the U.S., Canada and other countries; Down's syndrome is still used in the UK and other areas.

Cheers,
A4