This is the 60th anniversary of the publication of Hannah Arendt's final paper Truth and Politics. She points out that politicians need access to truth thus presaging the growing recognition of the need for policy to be underpinned by sound research evidence.

This presentation outlines a practical and contemporaneous example in which research has served as an important guide to innovative policy and service development and reform.

In 2006, the Queensland Government established a judicial inquiry headed by Justice William Carter, a retired Supreme Court Judge which focussed on human rights abuses of adults with an intellectual disability. It is estimated that up to 1300 people will be affected.

As the recommendations of the Inquiry have been implemented physical and psychological morbidity has been found to be significant. Greater than 60% of individuals reviewed to date have had a mood disorder which was previously undetected. There is good research evidence that these disorders may be treated efficiently and effectively.

In Australia, support and advocacy organisations for persons with mood disorders have set a benchmark for increasing the psychological literacy of the community.

Disability Services Queensland's (DSQ) Specialist Response Service (SRS) as part of the Positive Futures initiative, has used this research to develop an evidence based approach to people with intellectual disability and mood disorders and challenging behaviour and the disability sector seeks to engage with this broader community to continue to advance the cause of a doubly marginalised group of people - adults with intellectual disability and mood disorders.