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The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of some main implications of the neurodevelopmental perspective for the field of the mental health in intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders.

A discussion surrounding the importance of integrating different approaches in the neurodevelopmental perspective, drawing on sources from the paper proposals to the 10th International Congress of the European Association in Mental Health and Intellectual Disability (EAMHID), and the literature.

At present, the neurodevelopmental perspective seems to be the most appropriate and valued conceptual framework to support multi-level, interdisciplinary approaches in understanding the aetiologies of mental health problems as well as when and how to intervene. It inherently exemplifies a dimensional approach, which can capture variations between individuals, their developmental time course, brain-behaviours associations and functional significance better than categorical approaches, and diagnostic measures.

This editorial outlines a special issue that offers a comprehensive and varied collection of papers from the contributions to the 10th International Congress of the EAMHID.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of main outcomes of the 10th EAMHID International Congress and a critical overview of some key contributions.

A discussion on the impact of the neurodevelopmental perspective on mental health care achievements and failures in the field of intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The considerable progress in the field of mental health care for people with ID that has been made in the last 30 years and that is reflected through the 350 papers presented in this Congress represents the continuation of the work of great pioneers, such as Frank Menolascino, Felix Platter or William I. Gardner, who have been honoured by the EAMHID in the naming of the congress rooms, and the dedication of the poster award. The neurodevelopmental perspective was confirmed to be the current most valued conceptual framework to explain relations across systems and to support multi-level, transnosographic, life-long, interdisciplinary approaches in the production of aetiological insight and good-quality intervention for mental health problems; on the other hand it might determine a premature abandonment of the traditional nosology and the appearance of very broad spectrum conditions covering the full range of psychopathology. Also psychopharmacology was extensively considered, with the explicit aim to raise the attention of researchers and clinicians on this neglected topic. Unfortunately, adults with ID/ASD are still deprived of the right to receive treatments that are based on strong evidence, as it is for the general population.

This editorial outlines the second part of a special issue that offers a comprehensive and varied collection of papers from the contributions to the 10th International Congress of the EAMHID.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis of the literature on the topic of developmental framework and health comorbidities of children and adults with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) and neurodevelopmental disorders.

A rapid review of the literature and hand searching of relevant papers from 1999 to 2015 was carried out. Totally, 21 papers were identified covering a range of perspectives from neurodevelopmental trajectories to prevalence, treatment and service use.

All papers were utilised and complemented a previous review which, however, had not covered the aspect of treatment approaches for this population. As a group they appear to have distinctly different profiles from people with mild intellectual disability and of peers with average intelligence.

The evidence summary indicates an ongoing interest by the international scientific community in the topic of BIF. This group are often lost in the health system and may not receive appropriate care given their unique clinical profile. More should be done to increase clinicians’ awareness of their health needs.

The paper adds substantially to a previous review of the topic. An international collaboration may help to increase the profile of this work and lead to further changes in the care these individuals receive across the diagnostic and treatment spectrum.

The paper is a review, for the general adult mental health practitioner, of the issues to consider when managing a mental health presentation of a person with intellectual disability (PWID). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A neurodevelopmental model is outlined to assist practitioners in unravelling the wide range of potential factors relevant to intellectual disabilities (IDs). This includes an emphasis on complexity and interdisciplinary formulation within an individual’s context, and implications of the current policy changes.

In practice, managing the mental health of PWID can be challenging within usual mainstream services; there is more to consider than is usual for the general population.

The paper provides general mental health practitioners with a framework for a greater depth of understanding of the issues involved in the management of people with intellectual disability (ID). This includes discussion of the current policy context in ID, and some of its limitations.

The authors speculate only about relatively short-term advances in special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Speculation is confined to the overlapping areas of core values, technologies, neuroscience, and law/policy. In core values, the authors hope to see a resurgence of commitment to special, effective instruction and to practice aligned with scientific evidence. It is hoped that technologies will advance practices in instruction, improve the uses of artificial intelligence in teacher training and teaching, and encourage the appropriate use of artificial reproduction to avoid disorders. Neuroscience, it is hoped, will yield more reliable and helpful classification of disorders, better and more useful imaging, and more effective treatment of a variety of emotional, behavioral, and academic problems. In law and policy, the authors hope the Supreme Court's Endrew case will result in greater focus on challenging, appropriate education. Law and policy should also encourage trauma sensitivity in education, make whole-school approaches to trauma sensitivity the priority, and avoid universal trauma screening. Students' and families' legitimate interests in confidentiality and data privacy should be protected in newly constructed information-sharing infrastructures.

This narrative review aims to examine how trans people with intellectual disabilities are perceived and discussed in the academic literature.

A narrative review was carried out to better understand the positioning of people with intellectual disabilities who identify as trans.

There was a lack of clear terminology, an over medicalization of both people with intellectual disabilities and trans people and evidence that identifying with a non-conforming gender identity was seen as a problem by services. Services need to be better informed about issues around gender identity so that they are able to better support trans people with intellectual disabilities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous literature review has focused only on trans people with intellectual disabilities.

Children experience trauma more often than many early childhood educators realize. As many as 26% of children experience multiple trauma events such as abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse, parental incarceration, and so forth. Trauma impacts brain development in many negative ways that may have serious consequences on the child’s ability to learn, grow socially and emotionally, and develop physically. These brain changes also change how the child will play in the early childhood classroom, and information is given to help recognize the signs of trauma in children. The early childhood educator can make trauma-sensitive modifications in the classroom to assist the traumatized child’s ability to play out the problem. School counselors can be a resource for assisting early childhood teachers when working with traumatized children. A brief description of the importance of play therapy as a developmentally appropriate method to help traumatized young children is provided.

Children experience toxic stress if there is pronounced activation of their stress-response systems, in situations in which they do not have stable caregiving. Due to their exposure to multiple poverty-related risks, African American children may be more susceptible to exposure to toxic stress. Toxic stress affects young children’s brain and neurophysiologic functioning, which leads to a wide range of deleterious health, developmental, and mental health outcomes. Given the benefits of early care and education (ECE) for African American young children, ECE may represent a compensating experience for this group of children, and promote their positive development.

This case study is of a man with learning disabilities and significant general medical and mental health problems. It illustrates some of the difficulties in assessment, diagnosis, management and service provision with such cases. It is described how an extended admission to a specialist in‐patient unit was necessary in which the Care Programme Approach (CPA) was used to organise multidisciplinary care.

People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been associated with criminal acts and affiliation with groups and organisations with violent ideology and practice. The purpose of this paper is to present patients in mental health services with both ASD and psychosis, who are affiliated with such groups.

Three vignettes are used as examples. Some of the information is combined for the three participants for presentation. They were scored for mental health symptoms and behaviour problems on admission and discharge from inpatient care.

The combination of ASD and psychosis aggravates the problems of both conditions, which may elicit a collapse of both cognitive functioning and especially impulse control, and of the ability to judge whether situations are dangerous or offensive or not.

The present paper may contribute to a better understanding of the combination of ASD, psychosis and affiliation with groups and organisations as described, especially regarding the importance of identifying psychosis.