Abstract
Recommended changes in services for adults with mild learning disabilities are likely to have training implications. A case vignette study examined the effect of coexistent mental illness and learning disability on trainees' clinical assessment and management. Mental illness was more likely to be diagnosed in those with a mild learning disability than in a control group who had no learning disability. Despite this, the learning disability group was less likely to receive treatment. Service and training issues are discussed.
Highlights
Recommended changes in services for adults with mild learning disabilities are likely to have training implications
The Joint Working Group of the Sections for Psychiatry of Learning Disability and General Psychiatry recommendations in Meeting the Mental Health Needs of People with Learning Disabilities (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1997) include setting up specialist multi-disciplinary mental health teams which would facilitate the use of generic health services by people with mild learning disabilities and coexistent mental health problems, and the promotion of joint working between learning disability and other specialists to enable the latter to serve people wtoithlomokild alteartnrainingeesd'isabiinliittiieasl . aTssheisssmsteundty aiamnds subsequent clinical management of such cases
Since clinical management is based upon assessment opinion, the data were further examined to look at the treatment views of those respondents who agreed that the diagnosis was psychotic depression
Summary
Recommended changes in services for adults with mild learning disabilities are likely to have training implications. Our hypothesis was that knowledge about the presence of a mild learning disability could result in differences in assessment and management compared to a control group. For half of the sample this consisted of the following case vignette: A 35-year-old woman is brought to the emergency clinic by her sister.
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