Medical students receive very little instruction related to caring for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. As a result, medical students and physicians alike report low levels of confidence in their ability to provide care to this population. In this piece, I provide a medical student's perspective on how to implement changes in…

Background: Epilepsy and challenging behaviour are both highly prevalent in the intellectual disability (ID) population and it is thus crucial to understand any possible associations between the two. Method: PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science were searched for quantitative data about epilepsy and any forms of challenging…

Knowing about dying and death is a typical part of lifelong learning, gained through personal experience with the death of loved ones, popular culture, and formal education. Sudden and unexpected death aside, adults in the general community can use this knowledge to plan for the manner of their dying. Such planning might include will making,…

Adults with intellectual disability are increasingly being encouraged to take control of their lives through a range of goal-setting, choice- and decision-making opportunities. Within Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) proposes the use of person-centred planning and individualized funding to identify and meet the needs and…

The primary objective of this paper is to present recent advances in our understanding of epilepsy and to discuss the implications of these advances to optimise health and social care supports for people with epilepsy and intellectual disability (ID). The high prevalence and impact of epilepsy among people with ID has been well described.…

Conventionally, transition outcomes for youth with disability have focused rather narrowly on employment and employment-related outcomes. In this paper we propose a more holistic and comprehensive evaluation of transition outcomes through the lens of quality of life. First, 3 quality of life frameworks that have been applied empirically in…

Linking the concepts of intellectual disability and spiritual development creates a challenging mixture of sociological and theological issues. Formal definitions of the concepts can be less than conclusive but it remains a fundamental issue to consider if there may be some minimal level of intellectual competence below which it is not feasible to…

This paper identifies and discusses recent trends in the percentage of students with a disability identified in Australian schools in the 10-year period from 2000 to 2009. In addition, these trends are examined across government and nongovernment schools and considered in the light of the definition of disability used by Australian schools. In…

Older people with a lifelong disability, such as intellectual disability, face significant barriers to enjoying "active ageing" as they transition into retirement. Active ageing involves enhancement of quality of life through optimising the health, participation, and security of individuals and populations (World Health Organization [WHO], 2002).…

The number of children identified as having intellectual or developmental disability is rising worldwide and their education has been found wanting. It has been said that "they simply need better teaching." At the same time, there is an increasing evidence base that pedagogy that is based on the discipline of behaviour analysis offers…

For the last two decades, the Australian Federal Government has taken responsibility for funding disability employment services, and the states and territories are responsible for accommodation, respite, and community access services (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2004-2011). Replacing the existing Commonwealth State Territory…