Intellectual Disability Mental Health Connect
The Intellectual Disability Mental Health Connect website is for:
- people with intellectual disability
- support networks of people with intellectual disability including carers, family, support workers, friends, and advocates
- mental health professionals and GPs
- health, disability, and social service professionals.
Intellectual Disability Mental Health Connect provides plain English and Easy Read information on intellectual disability mental health pathways and aims to:
- support people with intellectual disability and their support networks to navigate the mental health system and
- assist mental health, health, disability, and social service professionals to provide high quality care and support to people with intellectual disability and mental health concerns.
Accessibility features are available.
Visit www.idmhconnect.health.
Background
Our research shows that many mental health professionals feel that they do not have the skills to meet the mental health needs of people with intellectual disability. Mental health professionals do not receive much education on how to make reasonable adjustments to provide quality care for this group.
People with intellectual disability and their support networks can find it hard to navigate the mental health system. They say they lack information about supports available, and when to access services.
Many health and disability services do not work closely together, with a lack of referrals.
Service users have said that intellectual disability care pathways make the care journey clearer and reduce the chance of having to repeat assessments. Health professionals have said that care pathways help to deliver care in a more coordinated way, with services communicating with each other. Our Intellectual Disability Mental Health Connect website aims to provide easy to understand information on these care pathways.
How we made the website
The following provides information on how we made the website.
Step 1: We consulted with people with intellectual disability, their family and support persons, and NSW mental health professionals.
What we found talking to people with intellectual disability and their support networks:
Step 2: We used what people had told us during the consultations and worked with web-developers to design and build the website.
Step 3: We tested and evaluated the website.
Step 4: We finalised the website based on feedback.
Step 5: We launched and evaluated the website across NSW.
