For the past year, we have worked hard to learn as much as we can about the mental health needs of people with IDD. We are finally ready to publish our results: Complex Mental Health Needs of People with IDD: A Gap Analysis Framework and its Texas-specific supplement. To create these works, we analyzed hundreds of sources. We organized our findings into key mental health domains:
– Awareness
– Access
– Diagnosis
– Quality of Care
– Treatment
We also looked at the special ways people experience mental healthcare, including people of different races, incarcerated people, those living in rural areas, and more. We addressed special issues like Covid-19, family stress, and trauma/PTSD. We also found resources, organizations, and tools available in Texas to help people with IDD get good mental healthcare. And we showed where there are still many gaps in service.
We hope this work will shine a light on this important issue. People with IDD have more common and more serious mental health care challenges than others, and they need support now. We want everyone-policy makers, legislators, researchers, practitioners, and self-advocates-to use what we’ve learned to fill the gaps.
You can download both publications below. Please share this post far and wide to let everyone know about these valuable resources.
Special thanks to the project team members and self-advocates who helped create the framework: Charles Lee Baird, Cynthia Burrow, Eduardo Hernandez, Alisa Miller, and Sarah VanMattson. And huge thanks to the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities for funding our work.
