Clinical Services

Good health affects nearly every aspect of daily life. Clinical services supports individuals to achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan. This is even more relevant for people with aging and disability concerns. 

Background

Children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities have historically had great difficulty obtaining high quality health care (Ervin et al.,2014). The same is often true of the aging population. The National Institute on Aging identifies 9 goals for improving health care among aging adults between 2020 and 2025. Some key areas for improvement in the disability/aging community include:    

• Health Promotion and Community Environments
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Quality of Health Care
• Training of Health Care Providers
• Health Care Financing
• Sources of Health Care
• Standards of care for people with IDD and their families need to be expanded and codified.
• Training and education for healthcare providers needs to be expanded globally.
• Board certification should be created and available for physicians who seek specialization in IDD medicine.
• Healthcare delivery systems, building on existing models as well as innovating new approaches to addressing the healthcare needs of people with IDD, need to be developed to improve access to quality care.
• Health promotion, wellness, and disease prevention strategies addressing health issues that are unique to people with IDD need to be strengthened. Important work has been done in this area (35–37).
• Research on the relationships between health status and quality of life, on systems of healthcare delivery and health status, and on the benefits of health promotion and disease prevention on health status needs to be expanded.

Gaps in health services are even wider for people with co-occurring mental health disorders and intellectual disability.  Recommendations included increased research, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.  Years later, we are still working to close the health care gaps experienced by persons with IDD.

This lack of high-quality health care has proliferated myths about the IDD population.  For example:

Myth: People with Down Syndrome (DS) do not live very far into adulthood.
Fact: People with DS can live productively with a median life span of almost 57 years.

Myth:  People with IDD are destined to have poor health and a low quality of life. 
Fact:  When people with IDD have a foundation of optimal health they can live their best life.

The DDA Clinical Services Division seeks to partner with community providers to break down these myths and help all people with IDD optimize their health. Health and clinical services significantly contribute to well-being, independence, and productivity. The DDA Clinical Services Division has committed itself to increase access to high quality health services so all that Tennesseans with disabilities have the opportunity for a prosperous and satisfying life.   

Reference:

Ervin DA, Hennen B, Merrick J and Morad M (2014) Healthcare for persons with intellectual and developmental disability in the community. Front. Public Health 2:83. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00083

Strategic Directions 2020-2025 | National Institute on Aging (nih.gov)