Editorial

Citation

Hardy, S. (2012), "Editorial", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/amhid.2012.54206caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 6, Issue 3

Welcome to the third issue of volume 6. We start with the sad news that Jane McCarthy, has stepped down in her role of as co-editor. Jane’s knowledge and expertise in the area of mental health and intellectual disabilities has proved invaluable to the journal, and in particular her promotion of the journal in the UK and internationally. During her editorship the journal has seen the amount of submitted papers double in the last three years and she leaves it in a very healthy state. Everyone associated with the journal would like to wish Jane all the best for the future and we are delighted that she will continue to serve on the editorial board.

Taking over from Jane as co-editor will be Dr Jean O’Hara, Clinical Director for the Behavioural and Developmental Disorders Clinical Academic Group at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We look forward to working with Jean to continue the progression of the journal.

This issue begins with four papers themed on autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Our non-themed papers look at policy- and gender-specific secure services.

Over the last few decades we have seen great strides in our understanding of autism and how best to meet the needs of people with this life long neuro-developmental condition. With increased awareness among those supporting children and an expanding range of professionals who can assess ASC we have seen an increase in the prevalence of ASC. This brings with it a need for the range of health and social care services with at least a basic understanding of how to support those with ASC using their services and a small but significant range of professionals who can offer highly specialised interventions to improve the quality of life of people with ASC, their families and carers.

Our first paper by Walsh and Hall addresses recent changes in legislation in England that specifically addresses the needs of people with ASC and those providing services. They provide an overview and critical review of the autism strategy and its implementation. They discuss how it fits into the wider disability agenda within government policy, how it has been received and its implications in regards of finance and what services need to do to meet with the requirements of this important piece if legislation.

Our second paper by Carpenter addresses some of the important aspects of the autism strategy from a clinical perspective. He reviews the literature in regards of assessment and diagnosis and offers personal insight into some of difficulties that clinicians can encounter.

Our third paper is by Gobrial and Raghavan who have completed a study to establish the prevalence of anxiety disorders in children and young people with intellectual disabilities and ASC, and found a prevalence of 32.6 per cent using the Glasgow Anxiety Scale. They recommend the need to explore the high level of risk factors for this vulnerable group, systematic assessment for those at risk and the need for effective interventions. Due to the nature of their developmental condition people with ASC are likely to experience frequent feelings of anxiety; however, like the wider population they may also develop the range of anxiety disorders.

We conclude our papers on autism with a personal account from the parent of a young man with autism. The carer describes her son’s story from childhood and how autism was not diagnosed until he was 28 years old. She described some of the difficulties her son and family encountered, the range of services that he has used and the need for one plan. She describes sources of support including the work of the National Autistic Society and the help of a carers group on a specialist inpatient service for adults with ASC.

Finally, we have contributions from Chaplin and Taggart for our non-themed papers, who update us on policy and legislative developments in England and Northern Ireland since we last visited this area in our very first issue. They discuss the key differences but also highlight similar areas of concern such as equal access to healthcare. Our last paper by Beber, describes the development of secure services for women with intellectual disability in the UK and found a lack of literature in this less recognised but significant area. She also outlines what is known about the mental health needs of this group.

Steve Hardy