March 1, 2023 – They are called the largest unrecognized minority group in the country – the 61 million people with disabilities. How prepared are physician practices to accommodate people with ambulatory, hearing, vision and cognitive challenges? According to some, not very.
For people across all categories of disabilities, attaining and maintaining good health has been elusive in an unwelcoming healthcare system, concluded the National Council on Disability in its “Health Equity Framework for People with Disabilities,” released last February. “People with disabilities utilize the healthcare system for disease management instead of disease prevention and can even view the healthcare system as a source of potential harm. It is a paradigm that exists as a result of avoidable systemic barriers within our healthcare system; institutional discrimination; and the resistance to incorporate even minimal disability cultural competency curricula into medical, nursing, and other health professional schools.”
Physicians often lack the knowledge, experience, and skills to distinguish clinical concerns arising from disability from those related to other health conditions, according to NCD. “One’s apparent disability – even when unrelated to the reason for one’s healthcare visit – can result in diagnostic overshadowing of the clinical concern and can have negative impact during the healthcare visit.
“Furthermore, and also due to a lack of training and familiarity, people with disabilities are sometimes viewed as asexual. … The sexual health of women with intellectual disabilities is particularly ignored in terms of screening for breast and cervical cancer.”
Read more in the latest issue of Repertoire Magazine.