Interdisciplinary Treatment Approach to Youth with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Many individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) have co-occurring mental health needs, yet service delivery options often do not allow for the integrated delivery of mental health treatment and social behavioral support services. Siloed treatment approaches often result in lack of collaboration between providers, increasing the difficulty in accessing comprehensive and coordinated treatments and reducing treatment potential and effective outcomes. Additionally, many service providers in behavioral support services are not trained to address significant mental health needs; similarly, providers of mental health services lack experience in modifying practices for differing cognitive needs. The lack of cross-training and cross-collaboration makes it difficult for an individual or family member to access appropriate treatment, sometimes resulting in crisis situations when coordinated, comprehensive interventions are absent. This paper discusses the need for delivering services in a coordinated model, presents a pilot program model in detail, highlights the relationships needed for collaboration, and addresses the importance of inclusion of the person with lived experience in overall treatment planning. Outcomes of the pilot model are presented, including description of a case study of a youth with both IDD and co-occurring mental health conditions who made functional improvements in response to an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach despite failure of multiple previous siloed interventions. Implications for policy development and community-based partnerships are discussed.