Showing papers by "Yona Lunsky published in 2007"

Mental Health Services for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities in Canada: Findings from a National Survey

Abstract: Background People with intellectual disabilities are known to have a high prevalence of mental health problems but few studies have considered how such mental health problems are addressed in Canada. The purpose of the present study was to document both the range of mental health services available to individuals with intellectual disabilities across Canada and the perceived service gaps. Material and Methods A 30-item questionnaire was developed that included questions on mental healthcare services for children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities. This survey was sent to key informants in the 10 Canadian provinces and three territories. Results More than half of the respondents reported that generic mental health providers were poorly equipped to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. Certain specialized services (inpatient treatment, emergency room expertise) were reported to exist by less than half of the respondents. Waitlists for specialized services were typically 4 months or longer. Respondents thought that training for staff and professionals was very important. Conclusion Some specialized services for individuals with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues were reported to exist in Canada but the need for more specialized services and further training was identified. Documentation of these service gaps should lead to further efforts in Canada for the improvement in services and developing policy.

Sexual knowledge and attitudes of men with intellectual disability who sexually offend

Abstract: Background Various explanations of sexual offending in men with intellectual disability (ID) have stressed sexual deviance and a lack of developmental socio‐sexual knowledge.Method Using the normative dataset of people with ID from the development of the Socio‐Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Assessment Tool – Revised (SSKAAT‐R: Griffiths & Lunsky, 2003), two samples of individuals with ID and a history of sexual offence were compared on sexual knowledge to matched samples of individuals with ID and no known sexual offences.Results Offenders with ID who were identified as having engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour, such as public masturbation or touching someone inappropriately, did not differ in terms of sexual knowledge from their matched sample of individuals with ID with no sexual offence history, whereas offenders who had committed more serious offences demonstrated greater sexual knowledge than matched non‐offenders. When only those individuals who had received prior sex education were...

Review of Inpatient Admissions of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders to a Specialized Dual Diagnosis Program

Abstract: The treatment of challenging behaviour and psychiatric disorders in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is particularly difficult. Most severe presentation are especially stressful to caregivers in the community and may lead to hospitalization even though the resulting change in routine and loss of caregivers can be severely detrimental to the patient. This paper reports on the results of a review of all inpatient admissions of clients with ASD to a specialized Dual Diagnosis Program over a six year period. Demographic characteristics, information on reasons for referral, comorbid diagnoses, length of hospitalization, barriers to discharge and discharge placement as well as rates that hospitalization poses for this group of vulnerable clients.

Dual Diagnosis or Dual Confusion: Limitations When Utilizing Non-specialist Clinical Data

Abstract: In this paper, we review challenges encountered when utilizing clinical data collected from non-specialists about persons with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric disorders. We draw on our experience with a dataset of adult inpatients and outpatients drawn from the nine psychiatric hospitals in Ontario (see Lunsky et al., 2003). First we discuss the problem of identifying patients with intellectual disabilities based on standard information collected in hospitals. Many hospitals categorize their patients by primary or secondary diagnosis only, so that a co-existing intellectual disability may or may not be recorded. Then we discuss problems related to the accuracy of psychiatric diagnoses made by individuals with limited training with the population. We found major differences in diagnostic patterns between specialized dual diagnosis programs and more generic programs. We conclude the paper with the argument that it is important to study dual diagnosis not just within the population of persons with intellectual disabilities but also within the broader mental health system. Doing so, however, can lead to problems as such data has its limitations. Dual diagnosis generally refers to persons with intellectual disabilities and mental health disorders. The majority of dual diagnosis research is published in intellectual disability journals and is either descriptive in nature or is a comparison of intellectually disabled people with and without mental health problems. There are significantly fewer studies that compare individuals with dual diagnosis to individuals who have psychiatric disorders but no intellectual disabilities. Such research is essential because it allows us to directly compare symptoms, patient characteristics and treatment outcomes of those with dual diagnosis to the general population with mental health