About
Who we are
Established at Mater in 1997 with a shared vision to meet an unmet community need, QCEIDAH is a leader in intellectual and developmental disability health and mental health. We’re passionate about improving the health and lives of people with intellectual and developmental disability, including those on the autism spectrum.
With collective expertise and resources across clinical practice, research and education, we strive to deliver new services in new ways to improve care and make the health system work better for people with disability.
Our team of psychiatrists, general practitioners, nurses, psychologists, allied health professionals and researchers—including research assistants with lived experience—are devoted to improving the health and mental health of people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum.
Formerly known as the Mater Intellectual Disability and Autism Service (MIDAS) and the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Development Disabilities (QCIDD), we are the only service in Queensland to combine clinical care, dedicated research and medical workforce education on enhancing the health and wellbeing of people with intellectual disability and autistic people.
Run under the auspices of Mater, we receive funding from Queensland Health and other grants, mostly from the Australian Government. We are also supported by Mater Foundation.
Vision
We want all people with intellectual and developmental disability to be able to access equitable healthcare and health workers to have the skills and knowledge to provide high quality healthcare.
Mission
What we do
Clinical leadership
We run specialist outpatient clinics at Mater Hospital Brisbane for people with intellectual disability and autistic people with complex support needs who are referred by their general practitioner, specialists, or Queensland Health Mental Health Service. We provide this service statewide via telehealth for people outside Brisbane.
Our dedicated Down syndrome clinic provides holistic and accessible care to address the unique needs of people with Down syndrome.
Outpatient clinics are also teaching clinics, attended by students, trainees and qualified staff who want to improve their knowledge and skills in this area.
Research
Our research is devoted to improving the health and mental health of people with intellectual disability and autistic people using inclusive research principles of co-design across all research activities. We have a strong track record in this area, with our research agenda spanning health services and clinical research.
We’re involved in local, national and international research collaborations and have a long history of attracting competitive grant funding.
Education and training
We develop and deliver training to support the current and emerging healthcare workforce to better respond to the health and mental health needs of people with intellectual disability and autistic people.
We collaborate with healthcare professionals, providers and patients—co-designing programs with people with lived experience—to improve the way healthcare services are delivered to people with disability.
We develop resources to educate and empower people with intellectual and developmental disability and their supporters—to help them overcome the challenges they face in accessing the healthcare they deserve.