Critical Study Highlights Poor Physician Interactions with People with IDD Revealing Dire Need to Better Train MDs on IDD Healthcare
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A recent survey showed how physicians are not prepared to offer quality care to people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and it also revealed how nurses’ efforts are fruitless. According to Dr. Craig Escudé, President of IntellectAbility, there exists an urgent need to train current physicians and medical students.
Efforts being made to improve IDD healthcare education, while overdue, will have a tremendously positive impact on the lives of millions of people.
It’s commonly known by family members, nurses, direct support professionals and people with disabilities that finding a clinician who understands the unique needs of people with disabilities is challenging.
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PHILADELPHIA - Intellectual disability puts individuals at higher risk of dying earlier in life than the general population, for a variety of medical and institutional reasons. A new study from Jefferson Health examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected this group, which makes up 1-3% of the US population. The study, published today in the
New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Catalyst, found that intellectual disability was second only to older age as a risk factor for dying from COVID-19. The chances of dying from COVID-19 are higher for those with intellectual disability than they are for people with congestive heart failure, kidney disease or lung disease, says lead author Jonathan Gleason, MD, the James D. and Mary Jo Danella Chief Quality Officer for Jefferson Health. That is a profound realization that we have not, as a healthcare community, fully appreciated until now.