Bridge to Better Health

People with intellectual disability often face significant barriers in accessing primary healthcare, leading to alarming disparities in health outcomes. In Australia, individuals with intellectual disabilities tragically experience a mortality rate up to 26 years earlier than the general population. This shocking statistic is often attributed to preventable causes, and barriers in accessing equitable care.

Annual health assessments can be valuable in addressing these barriers and catching illness early. The regular completion of a health assessment can make sure health needs are discovered, and actively managed. This can significantly reduce the likelihood of poor outcomes and the severity of illness for people with intellectual disability.

Unfortunately, some recent research shows that General Practitioners are often time poor, and don’t have enough time to complete health assessments thoroughly. So even though RCT evidence shows it works to pick up unmet health needs, systematically, they aren’t being utilised. The NHMRC has funded Mater Research to complete a study to bridge this gap and improve health outcomes of this marginalised community. To do this, we plan on demonstrating that a practice nurse can effectively do a lot of the annual health assessments for people with intellectual disability, saving general practitioners time.

The study will recruit general practices with practice nurses and several patients with intellectual disability. We will provide them access to a specialist intellectual disability nurse, online resources and education specific to the population in need. Practice nurses will receive guidance in conducting health assessments tailored to the needs of patients with intellectual disability.