Health promotion in people with intellectual disabilities

As has been well described, intellectual disability carries significant psychiatric and physical morbidity with it. Mental health and physical health strongly influence each other, thus any attempts at health promotion require careful consideration. Thus any programmes for health promotion for both aspects in persons with intellectual disability have to be developed in an easy-to-understand manner so that families, their carers and individuals themselves can benefit from them. In this group in particular, health inequalities associated with physical and mental health problems will play a role, which needs to be understood and tackled at a universal level. The aim has to be both on mental health promotion and on prevention of ill-health. In this paper some of the key underlying issues are described. For mental health promotion it is vital that suitable living conditions are available, along with social support and sufficient resources.