EQUAL TREATMENT: Needs of People with Intellectual Disabilities

The study was designed for the purposes of the ERASMUS+ project called “Equal Treatment”, which is funded with the aim to improve the access of people with intellectual disabilities to secondary and tertiary healthcare system through inclusive European policies in healthcare services, training of healthcare staff in interacting with patients with intellectual disabilities and, stronger collaboration between healthcare staff and professional supporters.

The project’s duration 30 months, starting from March 2022 and will focus on one main objective: supported rights and access of people with intellectual disabilities to secondary and tertiary healthcare services.

Results

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. Target Groups and project beneficiaries: Doctors, nurses, administrative staff in secondary and tertiary healthcare services (healthcare staff); Educators, psychologists, social workers, etc. supporting people with intellectual disabilities (professional Supporters); People with intellectual disabilities.

Core deliverable of the project is the creation of self-learning e-modules addressed to healthcare staff aiming at improving their capacities to provide more optimized services to people with intellectual disabilities and thus facilitate our project’s main objective, meaning supporting people’s with intellectual disabilities access in the secondary and tertiary healthcare system. In this context, needs analysis for people with intellectual disabilities, healthcare staff and professional supporters was implemented in order to secure the inclusion of each beneficiary in the procedure, as well as that educational material will reflect their actual needs. For the people with intellectual disabilities, qualitative study was conducted through interviews. As for the other two groups, questionnaires were disseminated, collected and statistically analyzed. The results of the analysis can provide valuable content for policy recommendations.

Read the full Needs Analysis here.