Mapping the pathway and support offered to children with an intellectual disability referred to specialist mental health services in the UK.

Abstract

Aims and method: This survey of 66 specialist mental health services aimed to provide an up-to-date description of pathways of care and interventions available to children with an intellectual disability referred for behaviours that challenge or with suspected mental health problems.

Results: Overall, 24% of services made contact with a family at referral stage, whereas 29% contacted families at least once during the waiting list phase. Only two in ten services offered any therapeutic input during the referral or waiting list stages. During the active caseload phase, services offered mostly psychoeducation (52-59%), followed by applied behaviour analytic approaches for behaviours that challenge (52%) and cognitive-behavioural therapy (41%). Thirty-six per cent of services had not offered any packaged or named intervention in the past 12 months.

Clinical implications: With increasing waiting times for specialist mental health support, services need to consider increasing the amount of contact and therapeutic input on offer throughout all stages of a child's journey with the service.