Individuals with an intellectual disability have neurodevelopmental deficits characterised by limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour.
These symptoms originate at birth and manifest before the age of 22 and can be associated with a considerable number of related and co-occurring issues, including mental health, neurodevelopmental, as well as neurological and medical conditions.
People with intellectual disability in NSW face significant health inequalities, with higher rates of preventable deaths and hospital admissions, chronic illness, mental health issues, and preventable conditions. As GPs, simple changes in primary care can make a big difference.
Project GROW offers tailored training and resources designed to make it easier for primary care providers to support patients with intellectual disability, improving both patient care and your workflow.
Below is a list of resources to support GPs:
CESPHN has a Chronic Disease Manual and Intellectual Disability MBS item numbers. Remuneration initiatives are regularly in flux make sure you are up to date with new government incentives such as MyMedicare to ensure you and your patients are utilising them to their full capacity.
A One Page Profile can be used to convey the reasons for the persons appointment, communication styles and support needs. Once the patient or their supporter completes this profile it can be sent to the health service, advance of an appointment, to remind the practice of their support needs. These resources are in English, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian.
Intellectual Disability Annual Health Assessment Checklist assists support providers to understand the importance of ID annual health assessments, how to appropriately book and what to prepare.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care make these suggestions:
Practical considerations:
Project GROW created and collated key resources to assist clinicians in building confidence, treating and understanding their patients’ with ID’s needs and improve overall practice efficiencies and accessibility.