A New Way of Well-Being for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

During the fall of 2022, Brittany Powers, a doctoral candidate in health behavior science and promotion in the College of Health Sciences at the university, noticed there was a lack of mental health support for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) at the university. While there was accessible help for other students, according to Powers, students with intellectual disabilities seemed to be overlooked when it came to mental health and support.

“There was a gap in support for students with ID,” Powers said. 

According to the American Psychiatric Association, an intellectual disability “involves problems with general mental abilities” that affect intellectual functioning, which includes learning, problem solving and judgment skills, as well as adaptive functioning, which includes communication and independent living skills. Autism spectrum disorder and cerebral palsy, for instance, often co-occurs in individuals with intellectual disability. Read More