The following is an excerpt from The Healthy by Reader’s Digest article, “Special Olympics Advocates: Don’t Leave This Community Out of Mental Health Discussions” on what effective mental health care looks like for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and why inclusion needs to be part of the solution.
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience depression, anxiety, and loneliness—but are rarely included in the conversation.
When we talk about mental health, we’re usually thinking about work burnout, social media fatigue, or the rising anxiety among teens. But there’s a population that often gets left out of this conversation entirely: the nearly 10 million people in the U.S. living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). They experience loneliness, stress, and depression just like anyone else—often more so—but face major barriers to accessing care and are rarely centered in mental health awareness efforts.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis, Chief Health Officer for Special Olympics, and Special Olympics athlete and advocate Susan Wang are working to change that. Together, they recently spoke to The Healthy by Reader’s Digest to break down what mental health care looks like when it actually works for people with IDD, the role of social inclusion in healing, and why it’s time to reframe who we picture when we talk about emotional well-being.
