Mental health needs of people with intellectual disability are largely unmet: professional bodies

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists is calling for better recognition, services and funding for people who have both an intellectual disability and mental illness.

“People with both intellectual disabilities and a mental illness often fall through the services gaps between the health and disability systems and their considerable needs are not addressed,” said Dr Maria Tomasic, President of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

“The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists welcomes the government’s recent commitment to developing a ten year roadmap for mental health reform. It is essential that the roadmap for reform addresses intellectual disability mental health. Having a voice for intellectual disability mental health on the new Mental Health Commission is also vital to ensure an inclusive approach to service planning and delivery for people with intellectual disability mental health issues,” said Dr Tomasic.

... read on here for the full statement from the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, issued at its Congress, in Darwin, on 1 June

The National and NSW Councils for Intellectual Disability, and the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine released their statement, The Place of People with Intellectual Disability in Mental Health Reform at the RANZCP Congress. The basic proprosition of the statement is that:

People who have both an intellectual disability and a mental illness need to be included from the start in mental health reform. They currently have very poor access to appropriate mental health services.



Government needs to address this problem, in particular by funding specialised intellectual disability mental health psychiatrists and nurses who can act as a consultancy, training and research adjunct to mainstream mental health services.
 
... read it in full here.