BIOMED-MEROPE project: service provision for adults with intellectual disability: a European comparison.

The aim of the present paper is to describe and compare services for adults with intellectual disability (ID) and mental health needs in five European countries: Austria, England, Greece, Ireland and Spain. A framework and structure for collecting information about service provision was designed. This information was collected through a mixture of interviews with service providers, questionnaires and a review of the research literature within each country. Information was collected on historical context, policy, legislation, assessment, treatment and the structure of services for people with ID and mental health problems. Overall, the needs of those with additional mental health needs have not been specifically addressed at a national level with perhaps the exception of England and Ireland, although there are still gaps in services in these nations. Normalization has been adopted in each of the five countries, and there are moves toward deinstitutionalization, integration and inclusion. Families and self-advocacy groups have grown. The pace of this change varies between and even within countries. The main findings of the study include: unclear policy, trends for legislative changes, increased prevalence of mental health problems, inadequate generic service provision, a need for specialist mental health services, a need for improved interconnections of services, and a need for training developments. Policy and legislation in the five European countries under consideration tend to separate the disability aspects of people with ID from their mental health needs. Consequently, the service needs of this group remain largely invisible. This might be a direct reflection of policy clarity and legislation, or could be the result of a failure to implement existing guidelines. This has a detrimental effect on the lives of people with ID, and their families and carers.

Cross-cultural validation of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory in Greece: a preliminary study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was first, to provide preliminary findings on the reliability and validity of a Greek translation of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986), and second, to examine whether there were any differences between Greek and American scores in the CAP Inventory. METHOD: A convenience sample of 320 Greek parents was recruited from the outpatient unit of a large Children's Hospital in Athens, Greece. Greek scores were compared with American scores taken from the test manual. RESULTS: Internal consistency reliability was high for the Abuse scale (.91), two factor scales (Distress = .93 and Rigidity = .86) and one Validity scale (Inconsistency = .80). The Greek version of the Abuse scale had a similar factorial structure with the American version. Also, 78.1% of Greek parents were classified correctly as nonabusive by the Abuse scale. This rate was increased to 88.6% when invalid questionnaires were excluded from the sample. Comparisons between Greek and American mean scale scores indicated that Greek scores were significantly higher than American scores in all but one scale. Greeks had significantly lower scores than Americans in the Problems with Child and Self scale. CONCLUSIONS: Current findings including the high reliability, relatively high correct classification rates and factorial structure of the Greek Abuse scale are promising and support the idea of continuation of research for the development and validation of the Greek CAP Inventory. The difference between Greek and American scores in particular indicates the need for adjustment of cut off scores in the Greek scale.