What Do NCI Data Reveal About People Who Are Dual Diagnosed With ID & Mental Illness?

The understanding that people can be dually diagnosed with intellectual disability (ID) and mental illness is relatively recent. Up until the last 30 to 40 years, it was assumed that people with ID could not also have a mental illness, and behavioral challenges were seen as a consequence of cognitive limitations rather than possible symptoms of underlying psychiatric conditions. This view shifted as people with ID increasingly resided in and received supports in the community, as they exercised their rights in communicating and representing themselves, and as realization grew about the widespread and long-term impacts of trauma and abuse . . .