Editorial

Citation

Chaplin, E. (2016), "Editorial", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 10 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/AMHID-02-2016-0005

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 10, Issue 2.

Eddie Chaplin

Welcome to the second edition of 2016. This issue features papers from a range of stakeholder perspectives and treatment approaches. The first paper from Robinson et al. looks at how we can increase understanding of people with mild intellectual disabilities and psychotic symptoms living in the community to make sense of their experience. Following analysis three themes were apparent from those interviewed: self-concept, the impact of having a mental health diagnosis and intellectual disabilities affect their life and how they cope with this. The paper suggests more may need to be done to help people understand, with the general feeling being that people were confused about their mental health diagnosis and its meaning. However outside of this they were able to offer rich accounts of other life experiences. Although this is a small study, its findings highlight a number of concerns about how people with intellectual disabilities understand their mental health that need to be considered and addressed across services.

The second paper from James examines the views of a range of local clinicians across disciplines to identify barriers to supporting and involving carers of people admitted to an assessment and treatment unit in Wales. Given heightened concerns for carers of people with intellectual disability admitted to inpatient units, this is a timely paper of what are the issues and what can be done to involve a group, many of whom may have lost confidence, feel vulnerable and worry about the safety of those admitted. The issues highlighted awareness of current practice and areas for improvement within the assessment and treatment unit. A large part of the frustration is a lack of community provision and the limited opportunities for family and carers to have an overall say and choice of where the people they care for are supported. A lack of knowledge of the needs and difficulties of carers is currently a barrier within a number of services. It is imperative the needs of carers have to be addressed before meaningful participation and empowerment is a reality across services.

The next paper from McInnis is a case study of a man with intellectual disabilities and reports on the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy. As well as introducing this treatment approach, it offers a comprehensive insight and illustrates its use in everyday practice.

The penultimate paper from Whitton and colleagues reports on the evaluation of a group within a secure intellectual disability and autism service investigating the impact of psychological case formulation meetings. The paper outlines the consensus approach to case formulation in the absence of an agreed definition and its perceived benefits. Among the improvements to practice included increased psychological understanding and empathy. As well as improving case formulation within teams; the paper has wider implications for practice in terms of providing person centred care and reduction of negative and restrictive practices.

The final paper from Spackman and colleagues reviews recommendations from UK reports on medical undergraduate intellectual disability training. This brief report identifies and recommends nine themes relevant to undergraduate intellectual disability medical training and what is being done in an attempt for this information to influence future training.

I hope you enjoy this edition of the journal and wish to thank you for your continuing support of Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities. We invite contributions from our readers to the journal and welcome a variety of papers on areas including innovative and evidence based practice, research, case studies, service and policy-related issues and literature reviews. We welcome submissions from the range of health and social care professionals, but additionally those who use services and people who care for them. If you would like to know more about how to submit your work for publication please contact me at the Estia (mailto: mailto:eddie.chaplin@kcl.ac.uk).).