Personalets deltakelse i arbeid med psykiske lidelser hos personer med utviklingshemming

Abstract

Background: Mental health disorders occur more often among people with intellectual disabilities than the general population. Still, they are poorly represented in assessments, treatment and research. Healthcare workers and staff’s lack of knowledge of how mental disorders can be detected in people with intellectual disabilities can result in patients not receiving necessary health care. Research question: What type of challenges are there in the work of mental illness within people with intellectual disabilities, and what role can staff have in this work? Purpose: To look at how employees in the services of people with intellectual disabilities can help ensure that users receive adequate health care for their mental illness. By detecting signs of mental disorders and assisting in the diagnostic process, staff will be able to contribute to good conditions for a high-quality life and a good mental health. Method: The method chosen for this project is a literature study. The method is based on Aveyard (2019) doing a literature review on how to do literature study with a systematic approach. Scopus, Psycinfo and web of science is databases that were used to carry out the searches. Result: Based on the findings from the four research articles, three main themes were selected to provide an answer for the research question. Theme headlines consist of staf´s knowledge of mental health disorders in people with intellectual disabilities, the roles they may have in diagnostic process and the staff's confidence. Conclusion: There should be more focus on mental health disorders in community health care services. Staff need training and there should be developed more guidelines that clarifies staff’s role in the diagnostic process. More research is recommended.