Public Health is for Everyone An inclusive planning toolkit for public health professionals

In this Interprofessional Virtual Grand Rounds presentation Dr. Thad Woodard and Molly Rutledge, Speech-Language Pathologist, present cases that will highlight communication strategies for working with patients with IDD, and how providers can involve patients with IDD in their health decisions. Rain Van Den Berg, MPH, and LEND Training Coordinator share resources to learn more.

The IDD Toolkit was created with a grant from The WITH Foundation. This toolkit provides resources and training to assist medical professionals serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC) recognizes that good health is vital to enjoying all other life activities. People with developmental disabilities often have difficulty accessing appropriate high-quality healthcare oftentimes because health care providers lack training or familiarity with the support people with developmental disabilities need.

FCIC is addressing this issue by undertaking activities that:
a) Educate health care providers to be sensitive to the special health needs of people with disabilities
b) Assist individuals and their caregivers to be proactive about knowing and communicating their own health needs across their lifespan.

Access helpful resources by clicking on the "Materials & Resources" or "XCEL Training" (www.xcel.flcic.org).

This is an online resource for healthcare providers to share with self-advocates, family members and caregivers. This visually based website focuses on plain language information about health for individuals with IDD and their families. Access the website at: My Health Toolkit

A presentation on American Sign Language, deaf culture, and working with interpreters. 

Institute on Disabilities at Temple University 

This presentation focuses on identifying physicians' roles in promoting self-advocacy and health self-management for their patients with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

Westchester Institute for Human Development

Resources from the Developmental Medicine Workshop were shared in a document to be available for medicine residents.

This resource is an article on health self-management from the perspective of a self-advocate. Mitchell Levitz shares personal experiences and advice on how individuals with disabilities can manage their own health and be self-advocates.

Lack of medical training results in physicians being unprepared to provide care to people with disabilities, which, in turn, contributes to the substantial health disparities that are evident in this population. Few medical schools or primary care residencies address the care of adults with disabilities. Competencies and guidelines to assist American physicians in caring for patients with physical or intellectual disabilities have yet to be established, thus making educational goals unclear. This article describes one novel training module regarding people with disabilities that was developed at the University of South Florida Health, Morsani College of Medicine (USF) and inserted into the primary care clerkship during a major curriculum redesign in 2005. Since then, all USF third-year medical students have been required to participate in this disability-related course component. The authors describe the module's development and integration into the primary care clerkship, as well as the specific elements of their curriculum.

This list provides information and resources for developmental diagnosis and referal for early intervention.