Better care for people with intellectual disability and mental illness.

摘要

The right to health is encapsulated in the United Nations' (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is generally accepted as a key entitlement underlying our health and disability system. I am aware of the rights and responsibilities I have to provide the best nursing skill and judgment to all individuals whom I support as a mental 'health nurse. The needs of some clients are complex when they live with both a mental health challenge/ illness and a developmental learning problem or intellectual disability. Appropriate treatment demands that when an intellectual disability exists, the mental illness also be diagnosed. Most people involved with individuals with intellectual disabilities are, at least to some extent, familiar with the stories of abuse and/or neglect occurring in some institutions charged with caring for this group. However, mental health professionals are far less familiar with the less obvious kind of neglect-the failure to adequately diagnose and treat mental illness in people with intellectual disability. The converse of this is the risk of di- agnosing mental illness where it does not exist, as well as treating behavioral problems with anti-psychotic drugs. Doing so does little to alleviate the problem and may present additional serious issues, both ethically and in terms of the impact of treatment, including undesirable and potentially disabling side effects.