Parents, providers look for answers for individuals with mental health issues on top of developmental disabilities

Fran Sadowski has seen firsthand the dangers of limited options.

During a study on services for “dually diagnosed” individuals with both developmental disabilities and mental illness, the CEO of Missoula Developmental Services Corporation shared the story of a 28-year-old client.

The client was living in a community based facility when he became seriously self-injurious. Because the state legislature had ordered the closure of the Montana Developmental Center in Boulder, there was no place for him to go. The state’s only public residential facility – and the only Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF-IID), public or private, in Montana – the MDC was the only place where a dually diagnosed individual could be placed by court order in a crisis.