Wellpoint Partnership Trains Texas Providers to Treat People with Disabilities

Earlier this year, Wellpoint Texas launched a partnership with IntellectAbility to give Texas physicians and other clinicians free access to Curriculum in IDD Healthcare — an online, continuing medical education-approved course that helps providers deliver the best care to people with an intellectual or developmental disability such as autism spectrum disorders, Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy.

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It’s part of our ongoing work to advance health equity and ensure that Texans — especially those with disabilities — can access the personalized care they need.

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Greg Thompson, president of Wellpoint Texas, just published a piece in the Texas Tribune with Dr. Craig Escudé, president of IntellectAbility and a board-certified developmental medicine physician, on the partnership and its importance for Texans with disabilities.

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Here’s an excerpt:

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More than 3.6 million Texans —?a population bigger than Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin combined?— have a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and it’s estimated that?more than 13 percent of them have an intellectual or developmental disabilities?(IDD) such as autism spectrum disorders, Down Syndrome, or Cerebral Palsy.

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That’s a lot of our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues, and they experience many of the same illnesses and injuries that everyone else does. But for far too many, healthcare doesn’t heal that pain; sometimes, a trip to the hospital or doctor’s office can even make it worse. This represents a massive and tragic health equity issue in Texas and beyond. Addressing it starts with medical training that is inclusive of disability education, and that includes training by people with disabilities. …

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A Harvard Medical School survey found that?only 41% of physicians feel “very confident” about their ability to provide the same level of care to patients with disabilities. This contributes to a culture of fear and uncertainty, as people with IDD are at the mercy of a healthcare system that doesn’t understand their needs.

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Further, disabled adults are “more likely to experience chronic conditions such as cardiac disease, diabetes, higher weight, and asthma and to lack emotional support,” according to a 2022 study. They need care that’s better attuned to their individual health needs. Unfortunately, that care is often worse.

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The roots of this issue reach into medical schools themselves. Too few schools have carved out enough space in their curriculum to teach students about the specialized care that people with IDD need. There also are relatively few experts working in this field; even if every medical, nursing, dental, and allied health professional school wanted to hire an IDD clinical expert, they would have difficulty finding enough of them.

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Read the full essay here: https://www.texastribune.org/paid-post/people-with-disabilities-need-disability-trained-physicians/