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Abstract: Background: Young people with disabilities are at greater risk of having mental health problems than are their nondisabled peers. Most research about the relationship between disability and mental health has been cross-sectional and unable to identify mental health status prior to onset of disability or possible mental health pathways following disability. There is a lack of information, therefore, about what happens to young people’s mental health when they become disabled. Objective: This study aimed to identify the mental health trajectories for young Australian adults after onset of self-reported disability, taking into account their predisability mental health status. Methods: Longitudinal data from waves 1 to 7 (2001 to 2007) of the survey of Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) were analyzed using a growth mixture modeling approach. Results: Three distinct mental health trajectories were identified for the 136 young people reporting onset of ongoing disability. The majority (64.7%) of respondents experienced positive mental health before and following onset of disability. However, a significant minority (35.3%) experienced either (a) low mental health both prior to and following onset of disability (19.1%) or (b) mental health deterioration following onset of disability (16.2%). Conclusion: Targeting appropriate interventions to the young people with disabilities in these 2 groups could have a significant impact on enduring mental health status. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a home-based intervention targeted to parents with intellectual disability to promote child health and home safety in the preschool years. A total of 63 parents were recruited for the study with 45 parents (40 mothers and 5 fathers) from 40 families completing the project. The research design permitted comparison between the intervention and three alternative conditions with all parents receiving the intervention in an alternating sequence over the life of the project. The intervention consisted of 10 weekly lessons carried out in the parent’s home focusing on child health and home safety. The program was adapted to suit the Australian context from the UCLA Parent–Child Health and Wellness Project (Tymchuk, Groen, & Dolyniuk, 2000). Outcome measures assessed parental health and safety behaviours. Standard measures included parental health, intelligence and literacy. The intervention improved parents’ ability to recognize home dangers, to identify precautions to deal with these dangers and resulted in a significant increase in the number of safety precautions parents implemented in their homes with all gains being maintained at 3 months post-intervention. Parents’ health behaviours including improved understanding of health and symptoms of illness, knowledge of and skills needed to manage life-threatening emergencies, knowledge about visiting the doctor, knowing when to call, what information to provide and what questions to ask, and how to use medicines safely significantly increased. Again, all gains were maintained 3 months post-intervention. The intervention was effective regardless of parental health, literacy skills, and IQ. This form of home-based intervention promotes a healthy and safe environment which is a prerequisite to continuing parental custody. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]