Introduction: Crisis intervention aims to prevent hospital admissions by providing rapid assessment and intensive support in the community. Interest is growing in the potential of crisis care for people with intellectual disabilities who often have co-occurring psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviors. They are at high risk for admission to…

Introduction: This article describes the development of an Aggression and Restriction Observation Checklist (AROC) for use in residential and in-patient services for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). The AROC was developed in collaboration between researchers and frontline staff. It assesses self-, person-, and object-directed aggressive…

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their families in the emergency department (ED). Hospital chart audits were conducted on a sample of 20 individuals with ID living with family who had visited the ED for a psychiatric crisis. Individuals had a combined total of 44 ED…

Carers of individuals with an intellectual disability are often responsible for managing their children's psychiatric crises when they arise. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of families using crisis and short-term transitional supports from the perspectives of families and of crisis and transitional support staff. Three…

Many individuals with intellectual disabilities who live with their families experience mental health problems and ensuing psychiatric emergencies. During periods of crisis, families may require additional services, including going to the emergency department (ED). The goal of this study was to elucidate demographic, clinical, and crisis features…

The purpose of this study was to describe the medication management and treatment provided in a specialty outpatient psychiatry clinic for 198 community-residing children and adults with intellectual disability and other developmental disabilities (IDD) referred to the clinic and discharged between 1999 and 2008. Using a descriptive design, data…