EQUAL TREATMENT: People with intellectual disabilities: rights and access to health care services in Europe

Project Equal Treatment

Equal Treatment is an ERASMUS+ funded project with the aim to improve the access of people with intellectual disabilities to secondary and tertiary health care through inclusive European policies in healthcare services; training of healthcare staff on interacting with patients with intellectual disabilities and; stronger collaboration between healthcare staff and professional supporters.

The project cycle goes from 2022 to 2024. It focuses on one main topic: supported rights and access of people with intellectual disabilities to secondary and tertiary healthcare services.

The expected results of the project are:

1. More effective policies on people with intellectual disabilities inclusion in healthcare services

2. Lower barriers for people with intellectual disabilities to access healthcare services

3. More effective training of healthcare staff to interact with people with intellectual disabilities

4. Stronger and better collaboration between healthcare staff and other professional supporters.

The target groups and project beneficiaries are: Doctors, Nurses, Administrative staff in secondary and tertiary healthcare services (Healthcare Staff); Educators, Psychologists, Social workers, etc. supporting people with intellectual disabilities (Professional Supporters).

One of the main deliverables of the project is the Study “People with intellectual disabilities rights and access to HealthCare services in Europe.

Aims of the study

Persons with intellectual disability have a high prevalence of mental and physical health problems. Health screening, mental and physical health interventions, inclusion of people with intellectual disability in health policy and improved health care are necessary to meet the needs of this population. This Project, through the results of a research based on three products such as the collation of good practices, the stakeholders’ analysis and the literature review, highlights the main challenges faced by people with intellectual disabilities in accessing secondary and tertiary healthcare. This study aims to highlight the results from this research analysing why, despite many EU policy recommendations on people with disabilities’ health and their rights to accessing health care services, people with a learning disability die, on average, 16 years younger than the general population, and are over four times more likely to die from causes that were amenable to good quality healthcare. The study conclusions are formulated in policy recommendations addressed at policy makers, healthcare managers and professionals working in this field and aiming at improving healthcare services delivered to people with an intellectual disability.

The recommendations from this Study will support the Equal Treatment Project consortium in the development of “Online self-learning e-modules for healthcare staff” across Lithuania, Finland, Greece and Spain. This training will then be shared amongst the networks of the project partners and disseminated at European level. The expected impact is that all the above-gathered good practices will be adapted to each participant country in order to improve the access to and the rights of people with intellectual disability in secondary and tertiary healthcare.