ABSTRACT
As a psychologist at The Institute of Mental Health (IMH), I work with adult clients with mental health issues (including those with intellectual disability [ID] and who may be on the autism spectrum) who are diagnosed and referred by psychiatrists for therapy. Just as in mental health settings elsewhere, the dominant medical model often limits clinicians’ understanding of their clients to their respective psychiatric diagnoses. While diagnoses provide a universal short-hand system to guide treatment, clinicians run a risk of homogenising individuals with the same diagnoses (e.g., schizophrenia).
