Repeat Emergency Department Visits for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Psychiatric Disorders

Introduction

This study examined the likelihood of this group returning to the ER within 30 days of discharge.

Findings

  • This population based in Ontario. Canada showed that individuals with both an IDD and psychiatric disorder had an increased risk of repeat ER visits compared to individuals with psychiatric disorders only.
  • For this combined disorder group, there was a trend of ER  visits more commonly resulting in admission
  • Residing in low socioeconomic neighborhoods and in rural areas, greater morbidity, and lower continuity of primary care over the previous 2 years were consistently associated with increased risk of repeat ER visits.

Reference

Durbin, A.; Balogh, R.; Lin, E.; Wilton, A.S.; Selick, A.; Dobranowski, K.M. Lunsky, Y. (2019). Repeat Emergency Department Visits for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Psychiatric Disorders. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 124 (3) 206-219.

Decoding The Overlap Between Autism and ADHD

Written by: Ricki Rusting

Published By: Spectrum

Every morning, Avigael Wodinsky sets a timer to keep her 12-year-old son, Naftali, on track while he gets dressed for school. “Otherwise,” she says, “he’ll find 57 other things to do on the way to the bathroom.”
Wodinsky says she knew something was different about Naftali from the time he was born, long before his autism diagnosis at 15 months. He lagged behind his twin sister in hitting developmental milestones, and he seemed distant. “When he was an infant and he was feeding, he wouldn’t cry if you took the bottle away from him,” she says. He often sat facing the corner, turning the pages of a picture book over and over again. Although he has above-average intelligence, he did not speak much until he was 4, and even then his speech was often ‘scripted:’ He would repeat phrases and sentences he had heard on television. Read the rest of the story here