How can my clinician provide better care for individuals with co-occurring mental illness and intellectual disabilities?

About 1/3 of people with an intellectual disability have a psychiatric disorder, and 1 out of 50 individuals with a psychiatric illness have an intellectual disability. These individuals are at elevated risk for adverse psychiatric and social outcomes.

The Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MHDD) National Training Center , funded by the Administration for Community Living, is a national clearinghouse for information to address the mental health needs of people with developmental disabilities. For instance, they organize MHDD ECHO, a network with real-time access to a team of experts in the field of mental health and developmental disabilities organized through a hub and spoke model.

You can access these free resources at: https://mhddcenter.org/

For more information about comorbidity between intellectual disability and psychiatric illness, see also:
Morgan, Vera A., et al. “Intellectual disability co-occurring with schizophrenia and other psychiatric illness: population-based study.” The British Journal of Psychiatry 193.5 (2008): 364-372.

  • Was this Helpful ?
  • YesNo

Join our #MissionForBetter now

Sign up for our newsletter. We’ll let you know about new resources, education, and more.

non-image