Peer Mentoring

  • Young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities need mental health services, but there are many barriers. Some barriers include: lack of professional knowledge about providing care to young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, long waitlists, and lack of services accessible via public transportation. Peer-delivered interventions, such as peer mentoring, may be one solution to these barriers.
  • Peer mentoring is a type of service where individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions are trained to provide support and/or deliver interventions to other young adults with disabilities. Peer mentoring is considered a best practice in mental health intervention and consistently promotes positive outcomes for individuals with IDD. However, we do not know of a peer mentoring program for young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities that is focused on mental health.
  • It is important that peer mentors receive good training so they can be great peer mentors.
  • Young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions are at heightened risk for health and quality of life disparities, such as decreased community participation.
  • Our team worked together to develop a peer mentoring program.
  • Our research suggested that this program can be done (it is “feasible”) and that young adults enjoyed it.
  • We observed that the peer mentor did a good job, but they had difficulty with some skills. Before we have a large trial of peer mentoring, it is important to improve peer mentor training and evaluate if peer mentors can deliver the intervention as it is intended (i.e., “with fidelity”).

Schwartz, A., Levin, M. (2021) Feasibility of a peer mentoring program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and co‐occurring mental health conditions, British Journal of Learning Disabilities

Schwartz, A., Young Adult Mental Health/Peer Mentoring Research Team, Kramer, J., Rogers, E.S., McDonald, K.E., Cohn, E.S., (2020). Stakeholder-driven approach to developing a peer-mentoring intervention for young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities

This study is funded by a Switzer Fellowship, provided to Ariel Schwartz by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (#90SFGE0031-01-00)

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Research Ethics for All

As part of a broader movement to advance disability rights, adults with developmental disabilities are increasingly influencing scientific research and taking on new roles as community research partners. In these roles, adults with developmental disabilities help decide what to study, how to study it, what it all means, and what to do with the new information—with the goal of conducting research that is in-line with community needs and values.

However, institutional requirements for training in human subjects research pose barrier to their full engagement, especially because existing trainings are inaccessible. Using stakeholder-engagement, we will develop an open-access research ethics training that is relevant, accessible, and acceptable to community research partners with developmental disabilities, researchers, and ethics review boards.

Evaluating the cognitive accessibility of the VIA Character Strengths Survey

This project is focused on a survey used in psychology called the VIA Character Strengths Survey. We want to make sure there is a VIA Character Strengths Survey that is easy to use for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

  • A lot of doctors, therapists, and teachers use questionnaires, or surveys, to learn about their patients, clients, and students.
  • Telling doctors, therapists, and teachers about yourself is important! It helps them understand your strengths and challenges.
  • The VIA Character Strengths Survey is a survey focused on the positive things about people’s personality. It asks about 24 different strengths people have.
  • The VIA Character Strength Survey can help people share their strengths.
  • We want to find out if the VIA Character Strengths Survey is easy for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to understand. If it is not, we will work to make it better.
  • We conducted focus groups with clinicians who use the VIA Character Strengths Survey with people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.
  • We learned about when and why they use this survey.
  • We also learned about what they think makes the survey hard to use for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

Schwartz, A. E., Caoili, A., Beasley, J. B., Kramer, J. M., & Kalb, L. G. (2022). Clinical applications of the VIA Inventory of Strengths with Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-10.

This research is funded by a grant awarded to Ariel Schwartz by the National Research Consortium on Mental Health in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

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We are doing interviews with adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to learn what they think about the survey. You can participate in this or other research - find out more on our research opportunities page.

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Innovative Research

MGH Institute and Syracuse University Receive Support for Innovative Research Ethics Training

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