Trailblazer in intellectual disability health turns 100

CID congratulates our longstanding member and supporter Dr Helen Beange on her 100th birthday.

In 1966 Helen was a trailblazer, with her intense focus on the health disparities facing people with intellectual disability.

She was shocked that basic health conditions were not being recognised or acted on. “Challenging behaviour” was assumed to be part of the disability when often a person was communicating that they were in pain. Conditions like cataracts were not treated.

Helen saw the need for specialist intellectual disability health services to back up the mainstream health system.

In 1986 she established a service at Royal North Shore Hospital, which then moved to operate from the Centre for Disability Studies, from where it still does excellent work today.

Helen was very influential in CID’s ongoing campaign to establish a statewide network of intellectual disability health teams. NSW currently has teams in seven Local Health Districts and we are campaigning for there to be a team in all 15 Districts.

As well as being a leading clinician, Helen did groundbreaking research. In particular, her research revealed that, even in a wealthy area like Northern Sydney, half of the medical conditions experienced by people with intellectual disability were going undiagnosed and untreated.

Interviewed by CID 20 years ago, Helen said:

“I continue to feel outraged by the limited action on the health of people with intellectual disability. So many of the health problems that beset people can be easily fixed. Along with a good life in the community, good health is the absolute right of a person with intellectual disability.”

Thank you Helen for 60 years of dedicated and impactful service to people with intellectual disability.