Future of Personal Health captures the impactful work being accomplished by Special Olympics to mitigate the gap in mental health care for people with disabilities. The following is an excerpt from the article titled Closing the Mental Health Gap for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities:
In 2009, Special Olympics Minnesota athlete Kayte Barton was struggling with her mental health and asked for help. However, as a person with autism, Barton quickly learned that seeking care did not guarantee her mental health needs would be fully understood.
“When I was struggling, I reached out for support,” Barton shared. “Too often, my disability was seen before my mental health. I wasn’t fully heard, and my needs were missed. That experience is painful, and it causes many people to stop asking for help altogether.”
