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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors
Published on: February 25, 2011
The reported experience of four women with intellectual disabilities receiving emergency psychiatric services in
1Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Ontario, Canada. Yona_Lunsky@camh.net
Hospital emergency departments are not well prepared to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Negative experiences can be very traumatic, particularly when the emergency visit is because of a behavioural or psychiatric problem. A focus group study was conducted in 2005 in Toronto, Canada with four women with intellectual disabilities who had paid repeated visits to their local emergency department due to a psychiatric or behavioural crisis. These women spoke about not feeling respected, the trauma of being restrained physically or chemically, and about hospital staff not being comfortable working with women with intellectual disabilities. Clinical implications are discussed and recommendations are presented to improve the experience of women who require emergency services in the future.
Hospital emergency departments are not well prepared to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Negative experiences can be very traumatic, particularly when the emergency visit is because of a behavioural or psychiatric problem. A focus group study was conducted in 2005 in Toronto, Canada with four women with intellectual disabilities who had paid repeated visits to their local emergency department due to a psychiatric or behavioural crisis. These women spoke about not feeling respected, the trauma of being restrained physically or chemically, and about hospital staff not being comfortable working with women with intellectual disabilities. Clinical implications are discussed and recommendations are presented to improve the experience of women who require emergency services in the future.
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