Adapting Therapy for Individuals With Intellectual Disability

Children and adults with intellectual disabilities experience significantly higher rates of mental health conditions, yet historically their needs have been overlooked in clinical research and practice. Standard assessment tools and therapeutic approaches are often ill-suited to their unique cognitive profiles, leading to under-diagnosis and under-treatment.

This presentation will explore how evidence-based therapies, particularly cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) - can be thoughtfully adapted to meet the mental health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. 

Sections

• The prevalence of mental health conditions in people with ID

• Challenges in assessment of mental health conditions among people with intellectual disabilities

• Adaptations of CBT for people with intellectual disabilities

• An introduction to Fearless Me, an evidence-based program designed to help children with ID manage anxiety, and how its principles can be applied to other mental health conditions (freely available to access)

Participants will leave with concrete strategies for assessment and therapy adaptations, as well as insights into how to implement Fearless Me in clinical and community settings.

Learning Outcomes 

By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:

• Identify the prevalence and presentation of mental health conditions in children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and recognise how these differ from the general population.

• Evaluate the limitations of standardised mental health assessment tools when applied to individuals with intellectual disabilities, and apply strategies to enhance diagnostic accuracy.

• Apply evidence-based adaptations of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to meet the cognitive, communication, and developmental needs of people with intellectual disabilities.

• Integrate principles from the Fearless Me program to support children with intellectual disabilities in managing anxiety, and extend these approaches to other mental health conditions.

• Implement practical, ethically-informed strategies to adapt therapy within both clinical and community settings, with the aim of reducing barriers to care and improving mental health outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities.