Medical Education

Over the last few issues of H-CARDD Connects, we’ve shared with you the many disparities that have been uncovered in vulnerable subpopulations of those with developmental disabilities (DD), including women, aging adults, transition age youth, as well as those with addictions and mental health issues. You’ve also learned the different ways H-CARDD has worked with researchers, clinicians, caregivers, and services users in primary and emergency care to foster solutions, like our toolkits. Over the next few issues, you will hear the stories of the people involved in these H-CARDD initiatives and get a behind the scenes look at some of the work we have done in medical education and health care advocacy. 

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Better Practice, Better Health

A big part of our knowledge to action projects done in primary and emergency care focused on providing education to medical staff about best practices when caring for a patient with developmental disabilities. One approach to achieving this end was the creation of the Best Practice Series, done in collaboration with researchers, clinicians and people with DD. The Best Practice Series includes videos on improving primary care, mental health care and emergency care. The videos demonstrate common practice errors followed by strategies to improve medical encounters. The videos are brief and can be watched in a group and discussed, or individually with the use of on screen teaching points. In the video below, see how the nurse improves Francie’s experience by explaining the process of drawing blood to her and her sister.

Get to Know Me Poster Campaign

Another important part of medical education was focusing on health care provider attitudes and comfort. When we began working in health care settings we quickly learned that health care providers may only get a snapshot view of an individual, and it is often when they are very sick or even in crisis. During these opportunities, they may underappreciate or not be able to get to know all the different aspects of their patients – what they like and what they don’t like about their health care and their interests and passions beyond the health care setting. Our goal with these posters originally was to help medical staff to be more aware and feel comfortable while supporting people with DD. The poster campaign took off and evolved into a self-advocacy initiative where people with DD had an opportunity to introduce themselves to health care providers and share their feelings toward health and healthcare. 

H-CARDD Conversations: Medical Education