Building the Path to Home

Challenges and successes

The service agencies that are set up for people with a developmental disability sometimes have trouble accommodating people who also have mental health problems. Likewise, many mental health service agencies are unsure about how to help people who also have an intellectual disability or a developmental delay. So people who have a dual diagnosis often end up not getting what they need from either service area, as shown by the following scenarios.

But when agencies take into account people's specialized needs, effective housing solutions can be found.

Family member 1
“I am reminded of the story of a man who went for psychiatric help. When he entered the office, he was faced with two doors: "men" and "women". He opened and went through the door labelled "men" and was confronted with two more doors: "introvert" and "extrovert". He opened and went through the introvert door, and saw two more doors: "dually diagnosed" and "not dually diagnosed". He opened and went through the door labelled "dually diagnosed" and found himself back on the street.”

Family member 2
“Last week, an adult with a dual diagnosis was referred to the psychiatric department at a general hospital. The hospital rejected the person for treatment because the case was "too complex" to treat. Where does that leave the parents who have been trying to give care for years?”

Family member 3
“Ian, a 53-year-old man, had lived in every kind of housing with built-in support and has been moving around the shelter system for many years. No matter where he was, he ended up getting angry, disruptive, scaring others, getting evicted. He was on a special floor at a shelter and his time was up. We were the high-support mental health community  team that was supporting him. We couldn't get any supported housing to accept him because of his behaviour. All he said he wanted was his own place, but how could we do that when we knew he was such a disruptive tenant?”

Family member 4
“The one stellar example where things worked out well we actually ended up getting housing for Pratiba through the developmental sector. And we found that was superb. The staff there really knew how to structure the environment, provide good organization, rules and boundaries. And that's what really helped. So it wasn't really in the mental health field where we were actually able to get housing for this person. In fact, the mental health housing programs were at their wit's end. So the specialized skills in working with people with developmental disability really made the difference.”

Next page >>

Back to top