New research: Rights, policy design and the path forward: preventive health equity for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that people with disability have the right to the best health care available. The section that says this is called Article 25.
The best health care available means having:
- equal access to health care and
- disability-specific adjustments if needed.
Twenty years after the Convention was adopted, and almost 20 years after Australia agreed to follow it, this right is still not being met.
People with intellectual disability are more likely to have illnesses that could be prevented and to die younger than other people.
These are things that could be changed by giving the best preventative health care to people with intellectual disability. Preventative health care helps people stay well and find health problems early.
Governments are paying more attention to these issues, but major barriers remain.
These include:
- health information that is difficult to access or understand
- services that do not work well together, and
- too little support for people to take part in decisions about their health.
This article looks at how Australia's preventive health policies and systems help or hinder people with intellectual disability from getting the health care they have a right to, as outlined in Article 25.
It looks at the National Preventive Health Strategy, Australia's Disability Strategy and the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability. It also considers findings from the Disability Royal Commission and the Commonwealth COVID-19 Response Inquiry.
The authors used vaccination and cardiovascular disease prevention as examples. They drew on the experiences of co-authors with intellectual disability. They found four things that still lead to unfair outcomes at different stages of preventative care.
They are:
- gaps in governance
- workforce capability
- service coordination
- accessible communication.
The authors identify changes that could improve preventive health care. They say that plans to improve preventative health care for people with intellectual disability should be included in general health policies, rather than through separate programs run by the disability and health sectors.
Our article was developed through an inclusive process involving a Lived Experience Reference Group of five people with intellectual disability and three co-authors with lived experience.
