This far, yet how much further? Reflections on the allure of the mainstream for people with intellectual disabilities and mental health needs

Abstract

Services for people with intellectual disabilities would be barely recognisable to clinicians working half a century ago. Two forces in particular stand out as driving the changes that we see today. The first accompanied the closure of the once popular institution‐like hospitals as part of a general reorientation within psychiatry as a whole from the asylum to the community. The second is the push towards incorporating people with intellectual disabilities in ‘mainstream’ services, the principle of ‘normalisation’ that sits at the heart of health and social policy in the UK for this group of people. This article is a reflection on the current status of mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities against this historical and philosophical backdrop and the arguments for their continued existence as a separate specialist entity within the field of psychiatry.

Citation

Flynn, A. (2010), "This far, yet how much further? Reflections on the allure of the mainstream for people with intellectual disabilities and mental health needs", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 9-14. https://doi.org/10.5042/amhid.2010.0670