Editorial

Citation

Chaplin, E. and O'Hara, J. (2015), "Editorial", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 9 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/AMHID-09-2015-0045

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 9, Issue 6.

After a run of three special editions we would like to welcome readers to this regular which covers a range of topics. Would like to extend congratulations to Dr Marco Bertelli who worked tirelessly to put together conference and special edition of this journal highlighting the theme. The EAMHID is the largest organisation dedicated to the mental health of people with intellectual disabilities, its tenth bi-annually conference the Italian press reported that over 500 from 21 different countries the final numbers nearer to 600 with over 30 countries taking part from all over the world; illustrating the growth of this specialist clinical and academic field across Europe and the world.

There are seven papers in this edition covering a wide range of areas. The first paper from Dodd and colleagues reports on the development and pilot of the Quality Outcome Measure for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia (QOMID). Although there are number of measures available specifically for other areas of mental health such as depression and anxiety, the measurement of outcomes relating to dementia, is still in its infancy. The QOMID is designed to look at quality outcomes for individuals with intellectual disabilities and dementia across the progression of the illness and we are offered an insight into how it can be used as a tool to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia. The second paper by Koritsas and Lacono reports on a number of factors including mental health, physical health, communication, learned function of the behaviour(s), severity of disability, living arrangement, age, and gender, alone or in combination, predict challenging behaviours in adults. The findings add to our understanding and highlight the fact that traditional challenging behaviour approaches are unable to explain the full range of contributors to both contact and non-contact behaviours. The third paper by Lewis and colleagues offers insight into the experiences of social workers working with parents with intellectual disabilities. In particular the increased risk when working with safeguarding cases and the increased risk of parents who have intellectual disabilities having their children removed compared to the general population. From the evidence presented the paper highlights several areas for future research as well as increasing our understanding of the problem and the issues faced by practitioners. The fourth paper by Marlow and Walker addresses the quality of life of six men with severe intellectual disabilities who moved from shared homes to individual flats. This study aimed to look at the changes in quality of life of these men who have profound and severe intellectual disabilities, some of whom also have challenging behaviours and autism. The papers offer a comprehensive account of the process and outlines the positive changes of moving to supported living from residential care. The fifth paper by McNally and McMurray reports on the barriers perceived by staff as to what makes it difficult for people with intellectual disability to access mainstream mental health services and identifies three themes from their focus groups. These centres around individual confidence in their skills, how services are currently configured and the misnomer that specialist intellectual disabilities services means that there is not a need to change. The sixth paper by Kiani and colleagues examines the use of Clozapine in people with intellectual disabilities who have a personality disorder. Although there is a limited evidence base it is something that albeit infrequent is found to consistently in the literature. The paper reports in five cases and examines five symptom clusters within personality disorder that it is suggested should be targeted by psychotropic medication. The final paper by Tostevin and Shaikh reports on staff training on formulation of fire setting behaviours, in particular its development and evaluation. The workshops covered four key areas; theoretical background to fire setting, formulation using the functional analysis model of fire setting (see Clare et al., 1992), offence paralleling behaviours and case studies. As well as seeking to demonstrate an increase in staff knowledge and awareness it is a step towards greater multidisciplinary input towards team formulation.

We hope you find this edition, the final edition of 2015, both interesting and stimulating. In 2016 we aim to combine regular issues with special editions including contributions from some of the leading international conferences related to intellectual disabilities.

Eddie Chaplin and Jean O'Hara