Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) are increasingly presenting to their health care professionals with concerns related to growing older. One particularly challenging clinical question is related to the evaluation of suspected cognitive decline or dementia in older adults with I/DD, a question that most physicians feel ill-prepared to answer. The National Task Group ...

We begin this article by examining the role of intellectual disabilities within child psychiatry, highlighting the relatively steady role of disabilities and the recent movement to examine behavior in specific genetic syndromes. We next propose five questions for future work. Questions relate to (1) specifying the nature of gene-brain-behavior connections; (2) delineating environmental effects ...

People with intellectual disabilities may be predisposed to occupational alienation as a result of an inherent need for ongoing support and limited understanding of how they express choice and engagement in occupation. In response to this risk of occupational injustice, this phenomenological study explored the occupational engagement of adults with intellectual disabilities in a community-based...

Federal and state training requirements for DSWs / p. 18 Aging and physical disabilities / p. 18 Intellectual and developmental disabilities / p. 19 Behavioral health / p. 20 DSW career paths / p. 20 Behavioral health / p. 21 Aging and physical disabilities / p. 21 Intellectual and developmental disabilities / p. 21 Improve DSW wages and access to benefits / p. 25 Reform training and credential...

There is a higher incidence of mental health problems amongst people with intellectual disabilities. Family members and support staff who provide support to people with intellectual disabilities with mental health difficulties are more likely to experience increased stress. In the mainstream mental health literature it has been demonstrated that psycho-educational family interventions have a po...

Background: “Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities” refers to children with markedly limited activity due to severe overlapping of physical and intellectual disabilities. The physical and mental burden placed on families raising severely disabled children, particularly the primary caregivers, is great in home settings. For families to effectively utilize services and overcome...