Welcome back to Module 3, Barriers to Care. This module will go through common gaps in health services for individuals with DD and will be addressed in four categories, Accessing Services, Accessing Information, Accessing Providers, and Assorted Other Barriers. Our first category is Information Access. We hear from individuals with DD and their families that they have a difficulty understanding medical terms used by doctors and healthcare staff, often in conversations and in clinics. We also know that health information and health promotion often does not include complex health needs or multi-disability diagnoses, meaning that individuals with DD and their families do not see themselves represented or their communities represented within health promotion and health social media. We also know that there is a lack of advertising of services for people with disabilities. We understand that as health professionals and health departments, that there is accommodable services or accommodations made for services for people with disabilities. However, many health departments and health care centers do not advertise these services and accommodations, which lead people with DD and their families to wonder and worry if an area is going to have specific services for disabilities or accommodations for services to include them. We also see a lack of connections with trusted disability organizations, meaning that even if they do exist, the connection between disability organizations that are community supported and health departments or health care services are not promoted and not shown. Our second category is Accessing Services. Once again, we understand that accommodations do exist within public health spaces and health spaces in general, but when these accommodations are not advertised and made public, it is difficult to know whether the services are going to be accessible for a person with DD and their families. We also hear that it's difficult to know if a public health professional or health professional in general is going to have knowledge of developmental disability or DD care. We also hear that communication is often non-inclusive, whether that be it is only written, it's only auditory, or that that information is not included in sign language. Communication barriers and communication inclusivity is a large part of accessing services for individuals with DD and their families. And finally, we hear that even when accommodations are available, often accommodations are only available where appointments are made ahead of time, limiting access to services for individuals with DD and their family, especially if an acute issue appears. Our third category is all about DD-Informed Providers. We hear constantly and consistently that DD-Informed Providers are a top request from families and from individuals with developmental disabilities. There is a general lack of DD-focused training in the medical field in general and in medical schooling. We hear that there is a need for trauma-informed providers, understanding the cross-sectionality of individuals with DD and individuals with trauma. There is a request for providers to have an understanding of dual diagnosis in complex medical cases, which individuals with DD are more likely to have. However, TCDD does fund projects in medical schools to address the information gap for providers, which is just the start to informing a general and larger medical system. And finally, general other access barriers. We know that people with DD often need caregivers or family members to travel with them to appointments due to accessible transportation. This limits when individuals with DD can access medical care, further alienating themselves from the medical system. We also understand that accessible transportation in itself can be difficult to find. If a family is not fortunate enough to be able to fund their own accessible transportation, this window gets even smaller while relying on accessible public transportation. We know that there is a lack of health care coverage, whether that is from insurance or waiver coverage. In our last module, we discussed the ranking of Texas in the US on how well Medicaid services covers individuals with disabilities, and individuals with developmental disabilities often do run and rely on Medicare and Medicaid to fund their services. And finally, we do know that there is a lack of accessible online forms, such as making appointments, where it is more difficult for people with developmental disabilities to make these appointments due to lack of accessibility and inclusivity on online forms. In our next module, we will cover accessibility terms, including commonly used ones.

developmental disabilities

healthcare access

information barriers

DD-informed providers

transportation issues