ABC News: Poor health outcomes persist for Australians with intellectual disability

In this video, Nas Campanella from ABC News reports on poor health outcomes for Australians with intellectual disability. It includes interviews with parent Rebecca Kelly, CID Senior Advocate Jim Simpson, and University of Queensland researcher Cathy Franklin.

Learn more about the Our Health Still Counts campaign and see what CID is doing about intellectual disability health.

Transcript

Rebecca, to Ryan: Can I have that one? No?

Nas (voiceover): Rebecca Kelly cherishes time with her son Ryan as he enters his teen years.

Rebecca: Ryan’s 13, starting to get that angsty teenage attitude at the moment. He’s got a really cheeky sense of humor.

Nas (voiceover): Ryan lives with Down syndrome and is dependent on a medical system that’s rife with unconscious bias towards people with intellectual disability. His mother says they’ve routinely felt dismissed and devalued by practitioners. One doctor even expressed surprise she didn’t terminate her pregnancy.

Rebecca: He’s not a mistake, he’s not an accident, he’s actually a really delightful child whose life has value.

Nas (voiceover): People with intellectual disability have much poorer health outcomes than the rest of the population. They have double the preventable deaths, die 27 years earlier, and have four times the rate of avoidable hospitalizations. Advocates want the government to mandate disability training in medical degrees and give doctors incentives to hold longer consultations.

Jim: The experience of people with intellectual disability in the Australian Health Care System are comparable to third world countries.

Nas (onscreen) Labor and the Coalition acknowledge that people with intellectual disability face serious inequities in the health system and accept that needs to change. Neither party has committed to specific reform and researchers say all governments know what is needed to turn things around.

Cathy: If we can create a system that works for people with intellectual disability it’s going to work for a lot of other groups

Rebecca, to Ryan: Want to sit down?

Rebecca: Getting good care for Ryan is very stressful and it takes a lot of skill, and when I’m not here who’s going to do that?

Nas: Hoping those in power embrace the challenge, Nas Campanella ABC News.