Health checks for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a family practice.
Ian Casson, Terry Broda, Janet Durbin, Angela Gonzales, Laurie Green, Elizabeth Grier, Yona Lunsky, Avra Selick, Kyle Sue
Author Information
Ian Casson: Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. ian.casson@dfm.queensu.ca.
Terry Broda: Advanced practice nurse at the See Things My Way clinic and a faculty member of the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University in Montreal, Que.
Janet Durbin: Research scientist in the Provincial System Support Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ont, and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Angela Gonzales: Advanced practice nurse and health care facilitator for the Toronto Network of Specialized Care at Surrey Place Centre.
Laurie Green: Family physician practising at St Michael's Hospital in Toronto and Lecturer at the University of Toronto.
Elizabeth Grier: Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's University.
Yona Lunsky: Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Professor and Developmental Disability Lead at the University of Toronto.
Avra Selick: Research coordinator for the Provincial System Support Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Kyle Sue: Clinical Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Family Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St John's.
OBJECTIVE: To provide tips and tools for primary care practitioners carrying out health checks for adult patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and for implementing a systematic program of health checks in a group or team practice. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: The "Primary Care of Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 2018 Canadian Consensus Guidelines" literature review and interdisciplinary input. Experience in implementing health checks in family practices was obtained through the primary care project of H-CARDD (Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities). MAIN MESSAGE: Annual comprehensive health assessments ("health checks") are a recommendation of the 2018 Canadian consensus guidelines for primary care of adults with IDD because of evidence of benefit in this population. Although health checks might require more time to complete for people with IDD than is usual for encounters in primary care, family physicians are in an ideal position to provide this service because of the attributes of family medicine, which include both an orientation to proactive care and the ability to provide continuity of care. Tips and tools are provided for carrying out health checks for adult patients with IDD and for implementing a systematic program of health checks in a group or team practice. CONCLUSION: Health checks can help enhance a family physician's approach to providing care for adults with IDD.
References
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