Editorial

Citation

Hardy, S. and McCarthy, J. (2012), "Editorial", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/amhid.2012.54206aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 6, Issue 1

Welcome to the first issue of 2012. We hope you have a good start to the year and wish you all the best for the coming year. We invite contributions from our readers to the journal of papers on innovative practice, research reports, case studies, service related papers and literature reviews. We would welcome submissions from the range of health and social care professionals, but additionally those who use services and people that care for them.

The difficulties of assessing mental health problems in people with intellectual disabilities are an issue that been discussed many times in this journal and is well documented in the literature over the last 30 years. One of the major contributions in this area has been the development of the psychiatric assessment schedules for adults with developmental disabilities (PAS-ADD). First developed over 20 years ago for use with older people with intellectual disabilities the PAS-ADD is used across the world both clinically and in many research studies. Moss provides an in-depth description of its development, use and continuing evolvement.

The use of guided self-help for common mental health problems is now a recognised intervention in primary health care. It is far more than providing information, it is a structured approach that supports the individual to develop coping skills to manage their difficulties, which is part of the stepped approach to care as outlined in NICE guidelines. Chaplin describes the development of a guided self-help tool specifically designed for people with intellectual disabilities; self-assessment and intervention pack. The paper focuses on the process employed to determine the contents of the pack, which involved both professionals and people with intellectual disabilities who use mental health services.

Over the last decade England has seen a number of inquiries and reports detailing the inequalities, poor quality service and sometimes abusive practice that people with intellectual disabilities have experienced when accessing healthcare. One of the major outcomes from this has been the development of an innovative national public health observatory specifically for intellectual disability. Emerson describes the first 15 months of the observatory’s operation, detailing the aims and achievements.

The Mental Capacity Act (DCA, 2005) has been operational in England and Wales now for several years, and is a crucial piece of legislation in upholding the rights of individuals who previously may have been assumed to lack capacity. It is vital that the full range of professionals who come in contact with people with intellectual disabilities have a sound understanding of the act, how it is used in practice and their own role in its use. The use of mental capacity law is wide ranging and affects a number of important decisions including health and social welfare. Willner and colleagues explore the knowledge of three-staff groups who come into professional contact with people with intellectual disabilities, i.e. National Health Service, Independent health sector and residential care. Using case vignettes and structured interviews they found that staff working in residential services have a limited understanding of mental capacity issues, and their confidence in their own knowledge may not be a good guide to their ability to deal with such issues when they arise in practice.

Epilepsy is one of most common health issues experienced by people with intellectual disabilities and significant number of individuals are at serious risk of status epilepticus. The majority of people with intellectual disabilities who receive 24-hour staff support do so in social care environments, and it is unlikely that their staff have any formal health qualifications. Deepak and colleagues provide a paper that studied the training that care home staff had received on administering emergency antiepileptic medication in order to identify training needs. They found that less than half of the care homes had staff trained to administer emergency antiepileptic medication and a common reason was a policy of only supporting people with well controlled seizures. The paper raises questions around the roles and responsibilities of various professionals and agencies in providing quality care to people with intellectual disabilities who have epilepsy.

Steve Hardy, Jane McCarthy