Attitudes of Senior Psychiatry Residents toward Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Senior psychiatry residents hold attitudes toward persons with intellectual disabilities that are not entirely consistent with the community living philosophic paradigm. More research is needed to uncover how attitudes of psychiatrists develop, as well as how training can influence attitudes.

Medical students’ attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: A literature review

“…As the number, frequency, and quality of contacts may be important (Morin, Rivard, Crocker, Boursier, & Caron, 2013), the roles of these variables should be assessed. Also, as students' attitudes towards persons with ID may be associated with their supervision (Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012), future research may examine if quality of placement supervision moderates the effectiveness of interventions on students' attitudes and future clinical behaviours.…”

“…However, the use of the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised (Antonak & Harth, 1994) among Chinese people may be questioned because its factor structure was not replicated among a sample of Chinese people (Hampton & Xiao, 2008). Ouellette-Kuntz et al (2012) found that 258 Canadian medical students with experience of people with ID were more likely than those without such experience to score higher on sheltering (e.g., the belief that this population should be protected). Further analysis revealed that 88.5% of those with experience typically reported meeting with five or fewer persons with ID.…”

“…Further analysis revealed that 88.5% of those with experience typically reported meeting with five or fewer persons with ID. Thus, their experience and consequent understanding may have been limited (Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012). Supervision's salience to attitudes emerged, with those who reported positive supervision experiences scoring higher on the empowerment of people with ID, and lower on the need to protect them in the community (Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012), than students who reported negative experiences of supervision.…”

“…Thus, their experience and consequent understanding may have been limited (Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012). Supervision's salience to attitudes emerged, with those who reported positive supervision experiences scoring higher on the empowerment of people with ID, and lower on the need to protect them in the community (Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012), than students who reported negative experiences of supervision. Whilst interesting, this study may have been limited by the authors' decision to use the CLAS-MR (Henry et al, 1996), as it only measures attitudes towards community inclusion and neglects a focus on medical students' attitudes to providing healthcare to people with ID.…”

A cascade of disparities: Health and health care access for people with intellectual disabilities

“…Yazbeck et al [2004] note that Australian students' and disability services professionals' attitudes toward persons with ID were more positive than the general population's, with more positive attitudes related to greater endorsement of community inclusion and less supportive of eugenics. Among senior psychiatry residents in Canada, males were more likely to hold excluding attitudes toward persons with ID than females; and specialized training in ID increased the extent to which residents regarded persons with ID as similar to themselves [Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2003]. In Australia, more than half of medical school and dental school deans and a third of medical residency program directors reported their alumni as not sufficiently knowledgeable or capable of providing treatment for persons with ID.…”