In Australia, people with intellectual disability are passing away 27 years earlier than the general population and have four times the rate of potentially avoidable hospitalisations. People with intellectual disability experience have twice the rate of mental health conditions that the general population. People with intellectual disability also experience many barriers to receiving safe and quality health care at the doctor and psychologist.

Improving the experience people with intellectual disability have when they visit their doctor or psychologist can change lives.

The Centre’s Driving Change team are speaking up about how future doctors and psychologists can improve health outcomes for people with intellectual disability.

In June 2025, the Driving Change team and partners advocated for the ideas in the Intellectual Disability Health Capability Framework to be put into action. We say the Framework for short.

The Framework is a clear plan that guides universities and accreditation councils to improve education and training for health students by including information about best practice with people with intellectual disability.

Accreditation councils work with all the places that educate and train health students in Australia.

The Driving Change team and partners wrote to two important accreditation councils.

We told the Councils about the Framework.

We said the Australian standards that guide doctors and psychologists to learn and be tested, can be improved by including the Framework.

We wrote to two Accreditation Councils about this. One Council we wrote to is the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council. We say APAC for short. Their standards say what psychology students need to learn to improve mental health for all Australians. APAC are reviewing their standards. We want them to include elements of the Framework in their review.

The other Council we wrote to is the Australian Medical Council. We say AMC for short. The AMC sets standards that guide what medical colleges and universities in Australia have to follow. The AMC are reviewing their standards too.

We think that the ideas of the Framework can be built into both the APAC standards and AMC standards. We think that by doing this we can help support the wellbeing for people with intellectual disability all around Australia and shape better health outcomes.

Read our full submission to APAC here. This submission is not in Plain English.

Read our full letter to AMC here. This letter is not in Plain English.