I am working as a academic/medical practitioner in a unit in Brisbane Australia.   The unit is established to improve the health of adults with intellectual disability and has a staff which include an adults physician (in American this translates as an internist), a medical practitioner who specializes in the care of adults with an intellectual and developmental disability.  We also have a behavioural psychologist, social worker, public health research/nurse practitioner.
 

The unit is part of the medical school and operates out of a university hospital.  A similar centre exist in Melbourne Australia.  We see adults with intellectual disability and provide telephone
consultations through out the state (the state - Queensland is very large and decentralised).

As we commonly see adults with intellectual disability who have problem behaviours, I would like to subscribe to the "Developmental Medicine Reviews and Reports".

The unit's research agenda includes the implementation of comprehensive health screening in the primary care (mainly general or family practice). We are currently commencing a RCT (N= 800+) to see if we can demonstrate that such a process produces positive health outcomes for adults with
intellectual disability.  There are also other research projects currently being undertaken by the unit, including an analysis of a combined behaviour and medical assessment on problem behaviours and an evaluation of a health intervention which was put in place a few years ago.

The unit also has a major teaching responsibility in the MD course and family practitioner training schemes, as well as education of carers, be they professional or family, and other professionals.

The Unit in combination with the Monash Centre for Developmental Disability ( Melbourne - Australia), the Sydney Center for Developmental Disability Studies and others through out Australia have written a Handbook for family practitioners called "Guidelines to management of people with intellectual and developmental disability".  It is a short and hopefully easily accessible text which is specifically designed to provide a brief and up to date information for medical practitioners who work with children and adults with intellectual and developmental disability.  The book will be
published in December 1998 or early next year.

Associate Professor Nicholas Lennox
Developmental Disability Unit,
The University of Queensland,
Rm 23 Nurses Residence, Mater Hopitals,
South Brisbane, Australia  4101
Telephone 07 38402412 Fax 07 3840 2445
n.lennox@spmed.uq.edu.au