Abstract
Background
Young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities and co‐occurring mental health conditions (IDD‐MH) experience significant mental health disparities. Barriers to services include transportation and stigma associated with services. Peer mentoring (PM) may be one solution to these barriers.
Methods
We conducted exploratory research to develop a PM intervention for young adults with IDD‐MH by partnering with 3 young adults with IDD‐MH and a seven‐member advisory board. In addition, we conducted focus groups with mental health clinicians (n = 10), peer providers (n = 9), and transition specialists (n = 20) to identify the desired PM outcomes and features and content that may facilitate these outcomes.
Results
Prioritized outcome: identifying and utilizing leisure activities as coping strategies. PM features: mentors should use relationship‐ and outcome‐driven actions to operationalize a mentee‐centred approach. Features and content considerations: safety, mentor matching, degree of structure, mentor training and support, and collaboration with mentees’ support teams.
Discussion
Findings are aligned with previous research on PM.