QUESTION:

Dear Dr. Heller,

I am a manager of a residential group home for three mentally challenged men. One of these individuals also has borderline personality disorder. Do you know of any groups that deal with this combination of BPD and Mental Retardation. Or, what is involved in starting up a group?

ANSWER:

While I don’t know of any specific groups, I have encountered this problem - and it is a huge one. It’s a situation where higher and proactive medication use is needed to prevent huge problems such as violence and suicide.

One technique I’ve found successful is to do the screening test that I use for my patients on both parents to look for additional diagnoses that may be present in the patient.