Search
SCHN MHID Hub

Click here to find out about the MHID Hub including forms.

Click here to find out about upcoming hub webinars or to access the recordings.

Click here to join the hub e-list.

 

Latest Journal

Click here for a copy of our latest Journal Edition. Volume 14, Issue 1, 2024.

 

School-Link E-list

Join our free e-list here to receive resources, primarily the CHW School-Link Journal, and from time to time other relevant material concerning the mental health of children and adolescents with an intellectual or developmental disability.

CHW School-Link Brochure

Download our latest CHW School-Link service brochure here: 

Guidelines on Pathways to Care

A guide for parents and carers: Guidelines on Pathways to Care for children and adolescents with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour and/or mental health problems.  

Excutive Summary

View the executive summary of the "Leading the Way in Mental Health and Intellectual Disability" needs analysis report here.

   

Behaviour Support in Schools

View the 2017 Obudsman Inquiry into behaviour management in schools. This report focuses on issues concerning students with complex needs and challenging behaviour. The report discusses the difficult challenges that schools face, but also draws attention to reasonable steps that can and should be taken to meet the learning and support needs of students, within a framework of best practice and evidence-based behaviour support.

 

 

Mental Health of Children and Adolescents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Framework for Professional Practice

Edited by David Dossetor, Donna White and Lesley Whatson

About the book 

By clinicians, for clinicians

Release date: 2011

View the books' table of contents  or skip to the free chapter PDF's below

Children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at high risk of co-morbid emotional, behavioural, and psychiatric problems that may further reduce their functional abilities. For the clinicians who support them and their families, meeting the needs of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health problems is challenging.

In this book, clinicians who work with young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health problems will find a comprehensive framework for how their complex developmental, emotional and behavioural needs might best be addressed. Relevant of biological, developmental, family, educational, social, and cultural factors are integrated. The evolution of developmental sequence is seen as vital to understanding the mental health problems of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This view informs multi-dimensional assessment of behaviour, and addresses conceptual confusion in defining behaviour problems, developmental disorders (including developmental psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders), mental disorders, and serious mental illnesses. Evidence-based interventions to promote skill development and mental health in young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are described. A model for how interdisciplinary and multi-agency collaboration and co-ordination might be facilitated is outlined. Parents’ perspectives are also presented. Fundamentally, though, this is a book

All clinicians and other professionals who work to improve mental health outcomes and quality of life more generally for young people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities – paediatricians, child psychiatrists, psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, behaviour clinicians, counselors, teachers, agency managers, among others – will find this book invaluable.

 

Free Chapters

Please find below the table of contents with PDF versions of the individual chapters. We hope these can benefit learning and professional practice. 

 

PART I FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1
 Aiming for a quality of life: What makes for a 'good enough' life for a child or youth with intellectual disability and their family? PDF  by David Dossetor
Chapter 2
A common language for understanding intellectual disability, development, emotions and behaviour PDF by Teena Caithness and Emma Moore
Chapter 3
Structured assessment of mental health problems in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities PDF by Louise A Ellis and Stewart L Einfeld
Chapter 4
A paediatrician's approach to the assessment of a child with intellectual disability or autism PDF by Joseph Macdessi
Chapter 5
Intellectual disabilities and multicultural issues PDF by Hadia Baassiri and Louisa Carroll

PART II FOCUS ON CARERS AND FAMILIES

Chapter 6
 Breaking the news of diagnosis: Facilitating adjustment and acceptance PDF by Natalie Silove
Chapter 7
Children with developmental disability: Is providing care a burden? PDF by Jacqueline Small
Chapter 8
Promoting parent readiness for change: A motivational interviewing approach PDF by Lesley Whatson and Wendy Grice
Chapter 9
CBT for carers of children with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour: Two cases PDF by Cal Paterson
Chapter 10
 Brothers and sisters with a disability: Rewarding or challenging? PDF by Jacqueline Small
Chapter 11
 Understanding and responding to challenging behaviour: Valuable contributions from attachment theory PDF by Anders Hansson
Chapter 12
 Challenging behaviour and change in intellectual disabilities: Family therapy, families and the wider system PDF by Paul Rhodes and Lesley Whatson
Chapter 13
Parents' perspectives PDF by Louisa Carroll, Kate Tye. Karen Ollerenshaw, Yasemin Esri, and Judy Brewer

PART III INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 14
Using a sensory diet to mediate behaviours of concern and to increase children's participation in daily activities PDF by Lucinda Mora and Chris Chapparo
Chapter 15
Communication for life: Promoting communicative competence for mental health and well-being PDF by Donna White
Chapter 16
Building life skills in children with intellectual disabilities PDF by Victoria Grahame
Chapter 17
Developing emotion-based social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability PDF by Belinda J Ratcliffe
Chapter 18
Promoting healthy sexual lives for young people with learning difficulties PDF by Cheryl Jones and Jane Chivers
Chapter 19
Transition: More than an event PDF by Debra Corfield and Kate Brierley

PART IV INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE MENTAL HEALTH

Chapter 20
Mental illness and intellectual disability: The concepts, the evidence and the clinical skills PDF by David Dossetor
Chapter 21
Promoting resolution and safety: A case study example PDF by Lesley Whatson, Debra Corfield and Brett Owens
Chapter 22
Modifications of cognitive behaviour therapy and counselling for individuals with intellectual disabilities PDF by Victoria Grahame
Chapter 23
The regulation of arousal in intellectual disability PDF by Bruce W Chenoweth
Chapter 24
Psychopharmacology: The use of medication to treat challenging behaviour in children and adolescents PDF by Anthony A Zehetner

PART V INTEGRATION OF SERVICE SYSTEMS

Chapter 25
A service model for the mental health needs of children and adolescents with intellectual disability PDF by David Dossetor
Chapter 26
A special school community: An inclusive setting for addressing the mental health needs of students with an intellectual disability PDF by Jodie A Caruana, Barbara Fleming, Hebah Saleh, Helen Goltzoff and David Dossetor
Chapter 27
The community clinician and interagency collaboration PDF by Mary Ellen Burke, Meredith A Martin and Garry M Dezilva
Conclusions PDF
References PDF