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Dual Disability Classification

The terms "dual disability" and "dual diagnosis" are sometimes confused, but they cannot be used interchangeably. "Dual diagnosis" refers to patients who have a mental health diagnosis as well as a problem with substance abuse. "Dual disability" does not imply a co-existing substance-abuse problem, although the patient might have one. According to the book "Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing" by Ruth Elder et al, dual disability means a diagnosis of a mental illness occurring together with an intellectual disability.

  1. Mental Illness

    • According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a diagnosis of mental illness ca describe any of various serious medical "conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning." Identification of a mental illness is characterized primarily by abnormal behavior or an inability to function socially, often based on a patient's subjective reports. The World Health Organization estimates that one in four people globally will, at some point in their lifetime, experience a mental health condition. It reports that mental disorders are four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the United States and other developed countries.

    Classification

    • Two systems of classification are widely used when discussing mental illness: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly referred to as the DSM-IV-TR, which is produced by the American Psychiatric Association, and the ICD-10, Chapter V: Mental and Behavioural Disorders, a subsection of the International Classification of Diseases published by the World Health Organization. Mental health diagnosis can include affective, anxiety, developmental, personality, psychotic, sexual or sleep disorders.

    Intellectual Disability

    • The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities defines an intellectual disability as one originating before age 18 and "characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior" that affects a range of basic conceptual, social and practical skills.

      An intellectual disability is not determined solely by a patient's Intelligence Quotient, but IQ is an important tool for measuring intellectual functioning. According to the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, as many as three out of every 100 people in the United States have an intellectual disability.

    Classification

    • Although the evaluation and classification of patients with intellectual disabilities is complex, an IQ test score of 70 to 75 indicates a limitation in intellectual functioning. Below-average intellectual functioning is divided into four overlapping levels of increasing severity. According to the American Psychiatric Association, mild impairment covers an IQ range of 50 to 75 and is thought to affect 85 percent of the 2 percent to 3 percent percent of the general population whom are diagnosed with an intellectual disability. A moderate impairment includes an IQ range of 35 to 55 and affects approximately 10 percent of diagnosed patients. Severe impairment covers an IQ range of 20 to 40, and a profound impairment involves an IQ below 20 to 25, with about 5 percent of patients falling into these last two categories.

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