“Everyone on the Same Team, All Working Together”: Implementing a Co-ordinated Multi-disciplinary Approach to Supporting Young People with Co-occurring Intellectual Disability and Mental Health Issues

Preparing a workforce across sectors: staff experiences of developing an Australian first, mental health and intellectual disability initiative for youth (MHIDI-Y)

“…One of the major challenges at the beginning of the program development was the recruitment and development of the specialised workforce in the field of youth dual disability (Weise et al , 2020; Whitehead et al , 2021). Traditionally, mental health professionals can have a limited understanding of ID, while professionals in the ID field may not have a specific understanding of mental health (Mohr et al , 2002).…”

“…To address the lack of targeted support for young people with dual disability and their families in Australia, and to address some of the identified barriers to service provision, a new program was recently designed to provide a comprehensive, family-focussed assessment, treatment and case management service for young people with an ID and co-morbid mental illness. The experience of establishing this service has been reported elsewhere (Whitehead et al , 2021), however an important factor in implementation was the lack of a readymade workforce with skills across both ID and mental health care. This paper describes the experiences of staff recruited into the new service and identifies barriers and enablers to successful workforce development in this complex space.…”

Meeting the mental health care needs of people with intellectual disability

“…There is some hope. In Victoria, a specialist multidisciplinary dual disability service, with an emphasis on strong engagement with young people and their families, has been successful 14 . But without a consistent national policy, how will more people receive what they need?…”