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Collaborating for Mental Health
Addressing self-injury among adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is typically quite different from the way it is addressed among those without IDD. University of Minnesota graduate student Caroline Roberts (MNLEND 2020-21) is exploring the notion that, perhaps, it shouldn’t be.
"A lot of families are struggling to find care and supports for self-injurious behavior. Caroline’s work examines what providers are doing to address these issues.”
Scaling student engagement
Throughout the country and internationally, ICI's Check & Connect program is helping students improve their grades and stay on track to graduate, reversing some of the pandemic's harm, according to this CEHD Connect feature story. For example, at the end of the 2021-22 school year, St. Louis County in northern Minnesota reported a 75 percent drop in school absences and a 62 percent decrease in suspensions from year-ago levels. About 900 students are enrolled in Check & Connect across almost every K-12 school in the county.
One of those students is second grader Audrianna Stone, pictured here working on an activity with her Check & Connect mentor. “Last year, just getting her to want to come to school was a real battle,” says her father. “Now she wakes up and is excited to go.”
Forum: Disrupting the Prison Pipeline
Jails and prisons are now the biggest source of incoming residents to large state-run institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). And 17 percent of people leaving those institutions go to criminal justice system settings. ICI released a brief on the subject (see below) and on February 14 will host a free online forum on disrupting this prison pipeline.
