15 General Introduction 1 Kyla is a 17-year-old girl. She was brought up in a household with two older siblings and an alcoholic father who kept a neglectful parenting style towards Kyla. Her mother was mostly absent. For as long as she can remember, she has been labeled a troublemaker. She attended a school for special education where she frequently fought with other kids and teachers. Kyla is headstrong and has a disregard for authority. This often leads to conflict. In a way, she is her own enemy. Eventually, youth care placed her with a foster family. After an escalation in her foster family, she lived with another foster family, after which she moved to residential youth care. Despite the caretakers’ best efforts, Kyla does not perceive the support she receives to be genuine. For a time she doubled down on her rule-breaking habits because "everything is broken already". She has a boyfriend, with whom she started to try out various illicit drugs. Recently she has been increasingly experiencing paranoia when being intoxicated. Her drug-using habits now frighten her somewhat. After having seen the devastating consequences of suffering from addiction, she wants to prevent developing one at all costs. The group: definition, prevalence rates and “common” problems Kevin, John, Naomi, and Kyla are a few examples of the thousands of youngsters who receive support and treatment for such problems in specialized (youth) care. Every person’s life story is different. As anyone who worked in youth- or mental healthcare will know: no two clients are the same. They do, however, have certain similarities that define them as a group. One thing that many individuals – like Kevin, John, Naomi, and Kyla – have in common: they have been diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability and receive mental healthcare specialized for this
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