New partnership to deliver accessible health education for people with intellectual disability and their supporters
Aruma has partnered with the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability (NCEIDH) to improve preventive health for people with intellectual disability.
The Australian Governments National Roadmap for Improving the Health of people with Intellectual Disability, tells us that people with disability are more likely to have much higher rates of potentially preventable hospitalisation and a lower life expectancy than people in the general population.
Thanks to NCEIDH’s Seed Innovation Grant funding, Aruma is in the design and development phase of creating accessible animated microlearning resources to improve health literacy and increase preventive healthcare uptake.
Dr Martin Laverty, Aruma’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “People with intellectual disability experience greater health disparities relative to the general population and generally have higher rates of some modifiable health risk factors and behaviours than people without disability, such as overweight and obesity.
“As a provider of NDIS supports for close to 4,000 people across the east coast of the country, Aruma has an important role to play to educate and upskill the sector on preventive health, as well as help our participants improve their health with practical and simple steps, like a yearly dental check-up. We’re very pleased to partner with academics, health professionals, technology specialists, government agencies and other disability service providers to move this agenda forward.”
The resources will target people with intellectual disability and their formal and informal supporters, and will cover a variety of topics including:
- Preventive health overview and healthy lifestyle behaviours
- Annual health checks and CHAP completion
- Preventive health screening strategies
- Oral health and dental care
- Healthcare advocacy and rights
- Health deterioration identification and condition management.
“We’re developing these resources alongside people with intellectual disability. We have a project advisory group made up of adults with intellectual disability, family members, support workers, and health professionals to guide this important work,” said Lisa Hutchinson, Senior Manager, Policy, Research & Clinical Governance.
She continued, “We are hopeful these accessible resources will bolster health literacy and lead to a higher uptake of annual health assessments and preventive health screening, as well as strengthened partnerships between the disability and healthcare sectors.”
