WHORM Health

Diseases – Disabilities (4.8 l.ft.; Box 9-21)
This secondary subject category contains material related to requests for the President’s or the United State’s involvement with specific disease groups such as sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, Reye’s Syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and individual requests for help with transplants.  This category also includes reports on arthritis/diabetes/kidney disease and digestive; dyslexia; problems with vaccines; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; the emergence of Acquired Immune Disease Syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s; and developing Reagan Administration AIDS policy.

Mental Disorders (0.7 l.ft.; Box 27-29)
This secondary subject category contains material related to mental illness and mental retardation. Material includes numerous requests from families, parents and/or care-givers for assistance in caring for their mentally handicapped or mentally ill relative. Requests are for financial assistance, requests to keep their relatives at home instead of institutionalized, slots in specific institutions, and pleas to save specfic programs. Material also includes requests for the Reagan Administration to coordinate a policy towards mental retardation and mental illness, and pressure states to have a policy rather than release mentally ill individiuals under their own power.

Material in this collection also includes multiple protests from individuals and groups dealing with the mentally ill or mentally handicapped in response to the U.S. Department of Justice amicus brief in the Halderman and U.S. v. Pennhurst case in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. In the 1984 case, the U.S. government argued that mentally ill or mentally retarded citizens were not guaranteed a right to placement in community programs under the U.S. Constitution, but were merely guaranteed their physical and mental safety within state institutions.

Many protesters also saw this as a step backward from the Baby Doe/Baby Jane Doe cases in the early 1980s. In these widely publicized cases, infants were denied needed medical treatment because they were mentally or physically handicapped. For more on the issue of infanticide in the 1980s, please see HE001-05

Physically Handicapped (3 l.ft.; Box 29-35)
This secondary subject category contains material related to physically handicapped individuals, most notably, blind and deaf persons, persons with cerebral palsy and quad-/para-plegics. Material includes the Reagan Administration's unsuccessful effort to revamp handicapped "504" regulations; annual reposts from the Helen Keller Institution; accessiblity issues for handicapped individuals for bathrooms, buildings and airplanes; the National Year of the Disabled (1982); the United Nations Decade of the Disabled (1981-1990); and the U.S. Decade of the Disabled (1983-1992); support for deaf interpreters of President Reagan's speeches; closed captioning on television programs; the International Games for the Disabled; and numerous requests from handicapped individuals or their caregivers for financial assistance, programs, and/or specific equipment.

This category also contains material related to the most famous "infanticide" cases of the 1980s, the Baby Doe or Bloomington baby case and the Baby Jane Doe case. The Baby Doe Amendment was added to the Child Abuse Law in 1984 due to these cases which established legal procedures for dealing with handicapped infants despite the wishes of the parents. The Baby Doe case was a Blooimington, Indiana infant born with Down Syndrome whose parents declined fairly routine surgery to fix gastro-intestinal problems and the child died.

A similar situation occurred in 1983 involving a "Baby Jane Doe" born in New York City. Baby Jane Doe was born with spina bifida and other mental and developmental problems. Surgical closure of the spinal defect and reduction of fluid from her brain would prolong her life, but she would be bedridden, paralyzed, epileptic, and with serve brain damage. The parents consulted specialists, clergy, and social workers. They decided to treat the newborn with antibiotics and bandages, rather than surgery to repair the spinal defect.

A private "Right to Life" attorney stepped in to stop the hospial and the parents from withholding medical treatment from Baby Jane Doe. The withholding of treatment was also reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who reported child abuse to the New York State authorities and sued the hosptial for discrimination against the handicapped infant.

Health, Services (0.7 l.ft.; Box 40-42)
This secondary subject categoy contains material related to federal standards for health professionals and health facilities; cost containment issues and utilization review procedures; National Health Service Corps; creating national trauma units; pilot projects in health care and possible privatization of some aspects of health care; review of funding legislation for health care services; Medicare/Medicaid services and costs; public health clinics; and discussions of various individual illnesses and treatments.

Hospitals-Medicare (6.2 l.ft., boxes 1-16)
This secondary subject category contains material relating to the rising costs of health care for the elderly, lack of Medicare coverage for organ transplants, and financial burdens on families who are faced with a loved one’s terminal or debilitating illness; telephone records, tracking worksheets, and notes are also included.

Narcotics (17.7 l.ft.)
This secondary subject category contains material relating to the suggestions from local, state and non-governmental organizations on ways to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse; regional cooperation on drug crimes; requests for Mrs. Reagan's assistance with drug abuse prevention projects; descriptions of drug abuse prevention projects; requests to re-establish the Office of Drug Abuse Policy; Executive Order 12368 re-establishing the Office of Drug Abuse Policy within the Office of Policy Development and establishing the Drug Policy Board; establishment and refinements of the Reagan Administrations' drug trafficking, drug abuse and drug abuse prevention policies; writing, editing and publication of the Federal Strategy for Prevention of Drug Abuse & Drug Trafficking, 1982, 1984 & 1986; statements and testimony by federal agencies, and the White House on drug abuse, prevention and trafficking; specific drug information, notably marijuana and cocaine; requests for military assistance in stopping drug trafficking and Posse Comitatus issues; NNBIS (National Narcotics Border Interdiction System); use of the herbicide Paraquat to spray marijuana fields and potential health hazards; creating drug free workplaces; mandatory drug testing of employees; law suits against drug testing; various drug abuse legislation and Administration positions on a "Drug Czar.'

Directors of the Drug Abuse Policy Office, Carlton Turner and Donald Ian "Mac" MacDonald used this category for filing some routine correspondence.

The following Case File has been digitized: 

Open

Any material on nuclear waste or the nuclear waste negotiator has been transferred to HE008 (Radiological Health).

At some point, the Office of Records Management decided that Superfund issues, toxic waste, disposal of toxic waste and location of toxic waste sites were also ground water issues. A large part of HE007-03 (Water Pollution–Water Purification) consists of case files regarding the exact same subjects as HE007.  The Library, in general, left this material  within HE007-03.

Radiological Health