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Via the AAP COCWD newsletter: The National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare (the Roadmap) is a plan created for clinicians to give the best healthcare possible to people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD).The Roadmap provides clear goals and commonsense actions that different groups can take to inspire change among both practicing clinicians and clinicians-in-training.
About the Road Map
The Roadmap is a plan for clinicians to learn how to give the best healthcare possible to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Created by the Action to Build Clinical Confidence and Culture (ABC3) Coalition, the Roadmap included input from people with IDD, their care partners and caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare leaders. IEC, a national nonprofit committed to making healthcare better and safer for people with IDD, formed the ABC3 Coalition.
Why It Matters
We all deserve the best possible healthcare. However, approximately 60% of U.S. physicians say they don’t have the training and skills to properly care for people with disabilities.
This is especially true for clinicians – individuals such as doctors, nurses, and dentists – who treat people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). IDD includes people with conditions such as autism, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, and more.
Reasons for the lack of confidence include:
- Medical students spend an average of just 11 minutes learning about IDD.
- A number of misconceptions exist about how disability affects the length and quality of life for people with IDD.
- Successfully serving people with IDD may mean using some tools and equipment that are not yet the standard for healthcare offices.
- Clinicians may not know where to go to get the training and support they are seeking.
- Clinicians may not know how to correctly charge insurance companies, so they can pay for any extra costs. For example, an appointment for a person with IDD can take extra time, which costs more.
The Roadmap was created to address these and other challenges.
Roadmap Goals
The National Roadmap seeks to:
- Give clinicians (such as doctors, nurses, and dentists) the skills and confidence to care for people with IDD
- Help clinician offices to be welcoming and accessible for people with IDD
- Offer clinicians a place to learn about caring for people with IDD
- Make sure that schools and other places that teach new clinicians have classes about caring for people with IDD
- Make sure the rules and guidelines for how clinicians do their jobs include how to best care for people with IDD
For additional information, please visit the National Roadmap for Disability-Inclusive Healthcare website.