ABSTRACT

Introduction : Despite the high prevalence of mental health issues for young people with intellectual disability (ID), young people with ID can struggle to receive the mental health support they need. The aim of this study was to examine a new community-based, clinical mental health service for young people (12 −25 years) with co-occurring ID and mental illness, and to explore the outcomes for young people and experiences of families who received service from the new program.

Methods : Two studies were conducted using qualitative and quantitative research methods. First, using the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales (HoNOS), a quantitative longitudinal study was conducted to measure any changes in young people’s behavioral and social issues, mental health, and levels of impairment, from the being accepted to the service till the completion of care (n = 23). A second study involved qualitative interviews with parents/carers who attended the service (n = 10) that were analyzed to look for emerging themes in parents’/carers’ experience of the service.

Results : Results of study 1 indicated that young people’s behavioral issues and social problems decreased from the time of admission to their completion of carer. Further, results of Study 2 revealed that parents/carers considered the mental health and behavior of their child had improved from being in the program. Parents also valued the person-centered, multidisciplinary, co-ordinated approach of the service, and viewed the new program as an improvement on previous services they had experienced.

Conclusions : This study provides preliminary support for the efficacy of the new program and suggests future specialist dual disability services may look to a family-focused, multidisciplinary approach that includes assessment, treatment, and management as an effective treatment model.

摘要

简介 ：尽管智障年轻人（ID）的心理健康问题普遍存在，但智障年轻人仍难以获得所需的心理健康支持。这项研究的目的是研究一种针对年轻人（12 -25岁）并发ID和精神疾病的，以社区为基础的新型临床心理健康服务，并探讨年轻人的结局和接受该服务的家庭的经历新程序提供的服务。

方法 ：采用定性和定量研究方法进行了两项研究。首先，使用《联合国国家健康结果量表》（HoNOS），进行了定量的纵向研究，以衡量从接受服务到服务完成为止，年轻人的行为和社会问题，心理健康以及障碍程度的任何变化护理（ n = 23）。第二项研究包括对参加该服务的父母/护理人员的定性访谈（ n = 10），并进行了分析，以寻找父母/护理人员对服务的体验中出现的主题。

结果 ：研究1的结果表明，从入院到护理完成，年轻人的行为问题和社会问题有所减少。此外，研究2的结果表明，父母/照顾者认为自己孩子的心理健康和行为与参加该计划相比有所改善。家长们也重视以人为本的，多学科的，协调的服务方式，并认为新计划是对他们以前所经历服务的改进。

结论 ：这项研究为新计划的有效性提供了初步的支持，并建议未来的双重残疾专家可以寻求以家庭为中心的多学科方法，其中包括评估，治疗和管理作为有效的治疗模型。