Other Resources
This page offers additional resources for providers.
Detecting Emotional Distress in Adults with Profound Intellectual Disability
Detecting emotional distress in adults with profound ID is incredibly important. This toolkit serves as a guide for developing a personal profile with individualized communication strategies and for tracking emotional patterns to detect changes that may indicate distress. The toolkit was designed for caregivers, family members, clinicians, educators, and direct support professionals.
This resource is about research on mental health therapy for adults with IDD. Therapists and people with IDD talked about what is helpful and unhelpful in therapy. These are some important topics:
- There are barriers to good therapy.
- Having someone to talk to is helpful.
- Building a good relationship is important.
- Understanding privacy is important.
- Including support people can sometimes be helpful or unhelpful.
- Accommodations make therapy easier.
- How therapy is done needs to be different for each person.
- Setting goals together is helpful.
- Learning self-advocacy in therapy can be helpful.
- Group therapy is helpful for some people, but not everyone.
This worksheet is for therapists to use with their clients with ID. The checklist shows what to do before and during a session. The worksheet helps therapists have open communication and a partnership with their clients.
This resource provides psychotherapy practice guidelines when working with adults with IDD and co-occurring mental health conditions. The guideline outlines person-centered practices, foundational concepts of therapy, the therapeutic process, and medical considerations. Developed by The Ohio State University Nisonger Center Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Health and Function, the guideline was informed by scoping literature reviews and focus groups with clinicians and adults with ID who have experience with the mental health service system.
ID Mental Health Therapy Guidelines
Psychotherapists need to know how to treat adults with ID and mental health conditions. Therapy practice guidelines were developed so therapists know what to do. The guidelines took 5 years to develop and the process included reviewing research articles and conducting focus groups. Adults with ID were included in the focus groups. This summary describes 9 key ways therapists can help people with ID.
This journal article explores the current knowledge regarding assessing and understanding mental health in individuals with profound disabilities. The article also explores how new frameworks and technologies may positively impact the assessment of mental distress in individuals with profound disabilities.
Researchers conducted a scoping review to identify treatment accommodations and outcome measurements in psychotherapy practices for adults with ID. The most commonly used intervention was cognitive behavioral therapy. Important accommodations to treatment included incorporating self-determination, using simplified language, providing visual supports, involving caregivers, and teaching prerequisite skills.
Psychotherapy treatment outcome research in adults with ID: Where do we go from here?
Despite the value and importance of practice and treatment guidelines in improving mental health care, there are no guidelines for the mental health treatment of adults with ID. This systematic review was conducted to identify effective treatment practices for adults with ID and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Of the studies that met the inclusion criteria, methodological rigor, study quality, and strength were evaluated. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.
This study explored perspectives on psychotherapy practices from adults with IDD receiving psychotherapy and mental health clinicians serving adults with IDD. The goal of the study was to identify opportunities, successes, and challenges from the perspective of adults with IDD who have received psychotherapy and clinicians providing psychotherapy.