Greg Hunt says yes to the Our Health Counts campaign

Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced very positive outcomes from the recent Roundtable on the Health of People with Intellectual Disability.

The Minister has released a draft national roadmap for improving health services for people with intellectual disability. The roadmap includes a wide range of measures including short-term measures focused on:

• Programs in Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to improve the capacity and skills of GPs and other primary health services to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability. This will initially be in four PHN-lead sites with a view to national roll-out after four years.
• Better use of existing Medicare items, including those for annual health assessments of people with intellectual disability.
• Better coordination between the health sector and other sectors such as disability and education.
• Support for people with intellectual disability and their families so that they can make informed decisions about healthcare and navigate the healthcare system.

We are particularly pleased that there will be an early start on the PHN programs, which were a central element of the Our Health Counts campaign.

We are also pleased that Minister Hunt has written to the deans of university medical and nursing schools about the need for better training on the health of people with intellectual disability.

The Roundtable was initiated by Minister Hunt in response to the Our Health Counts campaign led by Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) with our national body Inclusion Australia. The Department of Health worked very collaboratively with us in organising the Roundtable.

There will be a second Roundtable in early 2020 to further develop the roadmap.

We applaud Minister Hunt and his Department for their very positive and collaborative response to the Our Health Counts campaign.

Find out more

• Read the Draft National Roadmap
• Listen to an ABC news radio program about the roadmap.
• Read a report from the Roundtable and the outline of the proposed national roadmap at the Department of Health website.
• Visit the Our Health Counts campaign page
• Our report from the Roundtable