Our Health Still Counts campaign updates

We have some exciting updates from the Our Health Still Counts campaign!

CID meets with Minister Butler

We have met with the Federal Health Minister Mark Butler. Minister Butler heard from our team of experts, including CID project worker Laura Naing, about the challenges facing people with intellectual disability in healthcare, and the changes that need to occur.

Minister Butler reiterated the Labor Party’s commitment to the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability.

The campaign also met with Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston, who similarly expressed the Coalition’s ongoing commitment to the National Roadmap.

We look forward to hearing from Minister Butler and Shadow Minister Ruston about our other campaign asks:

• Better training for healthcare professionals to support people with intellectual disability
• Longer GP appointments for people with intellectual disability.

Our Health Still Counts in the media

Our campaign was launched with a splash across print media, online media, radio and television.

CID experts and advocates appeared in exclusives with the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald to launch our campaign.

Catch up on some of our campaign coverage:

• Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Why are you letting them do this?’ The terror these mothers have for ‘unseen’ children
• ABC News: Health outcomes for people with intellectual disability remain ‘comparable to third world countries’
• ABC TV: Poor health outcomes persist for Australians with intellectual disability

How you can help the campaign

The federal election is coming up soon. We are asking all politicians, parties, and candidates to help fix healthcare for people with intellectual disability.

We can make the changes needed to fix it, but we need your help! The main ways you can help is by sharing your story with us, and amplifying the Our Health Still Counts campaign through your channels.

• Add your story to the campaign: CID is looking for stories from people with intellectual disability and their supporters about experiences with healthcare professionals.
• Boost our message on social media: make politicians and candidates listen by sharing CID’s campaign materials on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Sign up for campaign updates: CID will send out more information about how you can be involved in our campaign as it progresses. Sign up for updates here.
• For more information, visit the Our Health Still Counts campaign website.

About the campaign

We are asking the government to:

• Implement the Roadmap – Commit to a full and timely implementation of the steps set out in the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability
• Make better training for healthcare professionals – The Government must ensure that health professionals and students get the training they need to provide quality health care to people with intellectual disability.
• Incentivise longer GP appointments – Support doctors to spend more time with people with intellectual disability via Medicare rebates.