The National Plan for Liver Services in 2009 called for a review of current liver services across the UK to identify areas of good and poor provision. We present the results of a national questionnaire survey of liver services, which focussed on staffing and training, access to key facilities and ...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the "CALM" (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means) training, in which community-based mental health care providers were trained to work with at-risk clients and their families to assess and reduce access to lethal means of suicide, including firearms. In 2006, CALM trainers ...

World Mental Health Survey data demonstrate that a high proportion of people who are suicidal receive no treatment and that, contrary to previous assumptions, attitudes to treatment constitute greater barriers to help-seeking than do stigma or structural/financial constraints. We explore how suicide-prevention policy-makers might respond to Bruffaerts et al's findings.

Introduction In the past few decades, mental health problems have increasingly contributed to sickness absence and long-term disability. However, little is known about prognostic factors of return to work (RTW) and disability of persons already on sick leave due to mental health problems. Understanding these factors may help to develop ...

We used Danish register data on rehabilitation benefits paid from 1994 to 2005. The purpose was to compare actual payments of rehabilitation benefits with intentions in the law. Legally, rehabilitation benefits should be used for providing living expenses during a planned rehabilitation period facilitating the recipients' return to the labor ...

Background  This study compares outpatients with intellectual disability (ID) receiving specialised services to outpatients with ID receiving general services in Ontario's tertiary mental healthcare system in terms of demographics, symptom profile, strengths and resources, and clinical service needs. Methods  A secondary analysis of Colorado Client Assessment Record data collected from ...

Objective: People with severe mental illnesses experience difficulty finding and maintaining employment, even if they are offered psychiatric vocational rehabilitation services. When service recipients are able to apply more effective illness self-management strategies, vocational rehabilitation outcomes improve. To assess the use of these strategies, the Illness Self-Management assessment instrument for ...

ABSTRACT: Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a curative treatment for patients with advanced hematologic malignancies. However, the long-term mental health issues of siblings who were not selected as donors (non-donor siblings, NDS) in the transplantation have not been well assessed. Data mining is useful in discovering new findings from ...

This article describes the development of Promoting Access to Health Services (PATHS), an intervention to promote regular use of clinical preventive services by women with physical disabilities. The intervention was developed using intervention mapping (IM), a theory-based logical process that incorporates the six steps of assessment of need, preparation of ...

Purpose. Wellness approaches are not routine in childhood disability services, despite theoretical and empirical support and an increasing demand for them from health consumers and disability activists. We aimed to investigate how health professionals define or understand wellness and its practice in the context of childhood disability. Method. A qualitative, interpretive approach ...

Disabled people have long advocated for sufficient resources to live a life with the same rights and responsibilities as non-disabled people. Identifying the unique resource needs of disabled people relative to the population as a whole and understanding the source of these needs is critical for determining adequate levels of ...

Purpose. To examine the structure, distribution and interrelationships of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)-compatible items in Australia's national data collection about disability support services. Method. Rasch analyses were carried out on 93,000 records relating to people aged 15 to 64 years, receiving disability support services in Australia in 2003. ...

To provide a panoramic view of the recent developments and current situation in epidemiology, legislation, policies, services, and research in intellectual disability in India. A wide variation in point prevalence of intellectual disability has been reported, from around 1/1000 to 32/1000, depending on the case definition, methodology, and population selected. ...

This review aims to summarize data published in the scientific literature and available on official websites on the epidemiology, policies and services for children and adults with intellectual disability in South Africa. There is a paucity of published literature on intellectual disability in South Africa. The lack of evidence-based publications ...

Prescribing of psychotropic drugs for unlicensed indications is common in inpatients with intellectual disability, but the frequency in the community is uncertain. This study examined the medical records of all patients undergoing review within a single service led by a consultant psychiatrist. The notes of 114 individuals with varying degrees ...

This study aimed to define the term 'profound and multiple learning disabilities' (PMLD). A shared understanding of terminology or diagnostic terms describing groups of individuals is important for the purposes of strategic development, service planning, and the provision and equity of service delivery. A literature review provided different definitions and ...

The literature has often suggested that individuals with intellectual disability who have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience higher rates of mental health problems than those without ASD. This finding has been challenged in recent years and so the purpose of this article was to critically review relevant studies since ...

Tailoring the delivery of disability services to the preferences and requirements of service users allows for more effective partnerships. The aim of this research was to explore parents' perceptions and the expectations of their child's speech-language pathology (SLP) within an intellectual disability service. Parents of school-aged children with intellectual disability ...

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the experiences of adults with learning disabilities in the mental health system. METHODS: Thirty-seven participants were clients at one of two community-based mental health agencies. Participants completed a standardized tool for assessment of a possible learning difficulty. Nineteen individuals met criteria, and nine participated in semistructured ...

To update primary health care providers on the guidelines and standards for documentation of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at the postsecondary level. We synthesized information from consultations with other experts at postsecondary disability offices and from relevant research in this area (specifically, PsycLIT, PsychINFO, and MEDLINE databases were searched ...

It is often assumed that current disability constructs exist in conceptual isolation from one another. This article explores the tangled historical relationship between "mental retardation" and learning disability in the writings and speeches of special education pioneer Samuel A. Kirk. Beginning in the 1950s, Kirk repeatedly told an educability narrative ...

A new study has identified rare de novo mutations in SHANK2 in individuals with autism and/or mental retardation. SHANK2 encodes a scaffolding protein present in excitatory synapses. This finding sheds some light on the pathophysiology of social and cognitive disability.

Because of the problems measuring subjective well-being in people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, there are no studies to date which explore the factors contributing to the subjective well-being in these groups. We wanted to explore the client and service characteristics contributing to the subjective well-being of persons with ...

The pathways through services for offenders with intellectual disability were reviewed. Participants were 197 offenders with intellectual disability accepted into three types of community and three types of secure forensic intellectual disability services. They were first compared with 280 participants referred but not accepted into services and were then followed-up ...

To return to farming following the onset of a disabling injury or health condition is predicated on a supportive environment for the farm owner-operator. The purpose of this study was to examine barriers and facilitators of returning to work after an injury or acquired disability, and to identify community supports ...

To assess the effects of service dogs on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), we conducted a survey of 10 service dog owners using SF-36v2 (Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short-Form Health Survey Version 2.0) and compared it with a matched control group of people with physical disabilities who did not ...

Valuing people and Valuing people's oral health both advocate choice and inclusion for people with learning disabilities. Research suggests that services and policy and guidance, while prescriptive and available, have not been effective in reducing oral health inequalities for people with learning disabilities. There is a risk that specialist services ...

In this interview, Gayle Bluebird, RN, Director of the Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) Center for Peer Networking, discusses the history and progress of the peer specialist movement. For the past 40 years, Gayle Bluebird has advocated for persons with psychiatric disabilities in service sectors, policy arenas, and with federal/state ...

India, the largest democratic country in the world, is marching ahead strongly on the growth and developmental front and is poised to be the leader in the market economy. This role creates and increases far greater responsibilities on us in ensuring that the benefit of the developmental cycle reaches each ...

BACKGROUND: The cost of caring for people with intellectual disability currently makes up a large proportion of healthcare spending in western Europe, and may rise in line with the increasing numbers of people with intellectual disability now living to old age. AIMS: To report service use and costs of older ...

BACKGROUND: There is a need for research to promote an understanding among service developers on why people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are referred to offender services in order for them to receive appropriate assessment and treatment. Previous studies investigating referrals into forensic ID services have concentrated on referral sources and ...

The intent of this investigation was to identify current definitions, issues, and strategies related to the use of Personal Assistance Services (PAS) in the workplace. The participants were employees with disabilities who used PAS in the workplace as well as employers who participated in research studies over the past 20 ...

The aim of this study is to explore whether/which job coach factors were significantly associated with the community-based employment service (CBES) programme outcome measures in Taiwan. This study used the 2003-2005 CBES programme for People with Disabilities Database in Taipei City in Taiwan (n = 3924) to do a secondary ...

PURPOSE: To understand the contribution of educational, employment, transportation, and assured income service programs to the successful transition to adulthood of young persons with motor disabilities. METHOD: Personal interviews of 76 young adults ages 20 to 30 years with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (n = 54) or spina bifida ...

BACKGROUND: This article describes the methods of a door-to-door screening survey exploring the distribution of disability and its major determinants in northeastern Spain. This study will set the basis for the development of disability-related services for the rural elderly in northeastern Spain. METHODS: The probabilistic sample was composed of 1,354 ...

Speech-language pathologists in school settings were surveyed with an instrument created from the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities' quality indicators self-assessment tool. Participants valued practice indicators of quality communication assessment and intervention to a higher degree than their actual practice. These findings appear ...

Based on national registers, the prevalence of intellectual disability (ID) in Norway is estimated to be 0.44 per 100 inhabitants. This study aimed to examine geographic and urban-rural differences in the prevalence of ID in Norway. Methods A survey based on the national register. Financial transfers intended to provide equal ...

BACKGROUND: This study explores the perceptions of a group of adults with intellectual disability regarding direct support staff. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews relating to experiences of direct support staff were developed from two focus groups. These interviews were conducted with 11 adults with intellectual disability residing within a forensic inpatient service. ...

This study describes a national data audit of the National Intellectual Disability Database (NIDD). The NIDD is a national information system for intellectual disability (ID) for Ireland. The purpose of this audit was to assess the overall accuracy of information contained on the NIDD, as well as collecting qualitative information ...

Current research indicates that older persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are a growing population with very specific needs. There are few existing studies that identify and characterise these needs. This study aimed to assess the health and social care needs of a group of older persons with ID in a ...

Young people with disabilities have poorer mental health than their non-disabled peers. However, people with disabilities are more likely than others to experience financial hardship and low social support, both of which have been linked with poor mental health outcomes. This article explores the extent to which the relatively poor ...

Recent literature and government guidance has highlighted the rights of parents with leaming disabilities and role of services in meeting their needs. In the present study, three focus groups were conducted involving 35 members of community health visiting teams in order to identify estimated incidence and needs of parents with ...

The current study describes and compares profiles of patients in the same specialized hospital program for patients with intellectual disability with and without forensic involvement. A retrospective chart review of 78 individuals (39 forensic and 39 non-forensic) served between 2006 and 2008 was completed. The forensic sample was more likely ...

The English government sees it important to view service users as active partners in the delivery of accessible resources. The current article follows a brief report which described an innovative project on developing an accessible DVD explaining the Birmingham Clinical Psychology Service to people with learning disabilities. The article describes ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Adults with intellectual disabilities experience higher rates of mental ill health than the general population. Despite this, the epidemiological knowledge base remains limited. The purpose of this article is to review mental health epidemiological studies relevant to adults with intellectual disabilities, published since January 2008. RECENT FINDINGS: ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The prevalence of intellectual disability is an estimated 1-4% worldwide. Etiological factors such as malnutrition, lack of perinatal care, and exposure to toxic and infectious agents, which are more common in low-income and middle-income (LAMI) countries, may contribute to a higher prevalence of intellectual disability in Latin ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Given the scarcity of Asian literature on intellectual disability, the aim of this review article is to shed light on the epidemiology, policy, and services for children and adults with intellectual disability in Asia. RECENT FINDINGS: The prevalence of intellectual disability across Asia appears to be consistent ...

BACKGROUND: Limitations of general psychiatric services have led to the development of specialised psychiatric programmes for patients with intellectual disability (ID) and mental health needs. Few studies have examined treatment outcomes of specialised inpatient units, and no studies have explored how the effects of intervention may differ for individuals at ...

The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) among youths active in at least one of five public service systems - mental health [MH], educational services for youth with serious emotional disturbance [SED], child welfare [CW], juvenile justice [JJ], ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether psychological distress is associated with disability status and use of rehabilitation services among adults aged 35 years and older with cardiovascular conditions. METHODS: Using 2007 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), we assessed the association between serious psychological distress (SPD) and the prevalence ...