Born and educated in Nebraska, Frank Menolascino, MD, dedicated his life to improving the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities both locally and across the world.
Dr. Menolascino was born in Omaha in 1930. He received his BA from the University of Omaha (today UNO) in 1952 and his MD from UNMC in 1957. He joined the UNMC Department of Psychiatry in 1958 and became the clinical director and pediatric psychiatrist at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute (NPI). NPI was established initially as a partnership between the state hospitals and the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and was located at the Douglas County Hospital. The university built a separate unit on campus in 1955 (today, the location of the Durham Research Center).
During his time at NPI, Dr. Menolascino collaborated with Wolf Wolfensberger, PhD. Together, they developed community activism and support for persons with intellectual disabilities, championing the deinstitutionalization movement in Nebraska. Drs. Menolascino and Wolfensberger helped create ENCOR (Eastern Nebraska Community Office of Retardation), the first community-based support program for individuals with intellectual disabilities in Nebraska and one of the earliest in the United States. ENCOR has been providing support to eastern Nebraska for decades. In 2020, ENCOR changed its name to DUET (Develop, Unite, Empower, Together). Just as when Drs. Menolascino and Wolfensberger established ENCOR, DUET provides residential support, job coaching, day support services, employment opportunities, education and community advocacy for children and adults with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In 1985, Dr. Menolascino became the chair of the combined department of psychiatry for Creighton and UNMC, the first joint program in the United States.
In addition to authoring 14 books and more than 200 articles, Dr. Menolascino was honored as the recipient of the E. A. Strecker Award as Outstanding Psychiatrist in America, the Distinguished Lecturer Award from Oxford University and was one of two Americans to receive the Blake Marsh Lecture Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London.
Dr. Menolascino served as chair of the joint psychiatry department until he died in 1992. In 1997, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) established the Frank J. Menolascino Award. Annually, the APA selects an individual who has made significant contributions to psychiatric services for persons with intellectual development disorders/development disabilities. The work could be through direct clinical services or dissemination of knowledge through teaching or research.
Dr. Menolascino dedicated his career to creating better lives for Nebraska citizens with developmental disabilities. To learn more about NPI and other individuals who have improved psychiatric services in Nebraska, visit the Wigton Heritage Center.
Simply stated, he was one of those "larger than life" persons we all have only a brief chance to have known!