People With Intellectual Disabilities Forgotten By US Health Care System

[HuckleB]

People With Intellectual Disabilities Are Forgotten in the US Health Care System

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=28900

"10 Aug 2005

Research Reveals That a Person With an Intellectual Disability Would Have to Call 50 Doctors to Find One Who Had a Minimum Amount of Training to Treat Him/Her

Studies commissioned by Special Olympics validate the view that individuals with intellectual disabilities face widespread health problems, while physicians, dentists and other health professionals are not receiving the training to adequately treat them.

While people with intellectual disabilities are no longer forgotten in institutions, they are often overlooked and forgotten in the health care system.

"The health of people with intellectual disabilities is much worse than that of people without disabilities," states Mary Helen Witten of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

..."


I suppose it's not shocking. And yet, how can it not be? Certainly, it should be.

[rodeodance]

1. they are at the bottom of an ALREADY broken health 'system"

[brainshrub]

2. I will go a step further:

I say that the US actively discriminates against people with mental illness.

Not caring for the mentally ill is just as bad as leaving a person with a broken leg out in the desert.

IMHO, the reason Western Europe doesn't have as big a homeless problem as the United States is because their health-care system deals with mental illness instead of turning them out onto the streets.

[REP]

3. "Intellectual Disability" Not The Same As "Mental Illness"

An intellectual disability is mental retardation. Those with intellectual disabilities can have mental illnesses, but they're not the same thing.

[brainshrub]

4. I didn't know that.

But I still stand by what I wrote.

It's interesting the shifting names we give for people with brain incapacitation: Retarded --> Special Needs --> Intellectual Disability.

While I'll call people with ID anything their care-takers want, I still prefer the term "retarded" for the same reason I prefer "Shell Shock" to describe Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Medical terminology often doesn't have the same emotional impact as the vernacular does.

Someone with an "Intellectual Disability" brings to mind an incompetent boss or the weird lady who lives with all the cats at the end of the street; it doesn't imply that these people are going to need some kind of supervision for the rest of their lives.

[REP]

5. Not Medical Terminology; It's Political Correctness

I agree; there's nothing wrong with mentally retarded and there's nothing wrong with using a term that's more agreeable to them and their caretakers. "Intellectual disability," however, is trying to hard to be nonoffensive it sounds like someone trying to call someone else 'stupid' on a message board without getting their post zapped!

[brainshrub]

8. Agreed 100%

[HuckleB]

7. It's not just mental retardation, however.

It encompasses all developmental disabilities such as autism, down's syndrome, fragile-x syndrome, and on and on.

[cannabis_flower]

17. And also...

People who later acquire intellectual disability - for example through head wounds, Alzheimer's or stokes.

[Mnemosyne]

6. Too many in this country still believe

that "you just need to pull yourself together" and "stop hiding behind medications to solve your problems".
Argh!!!
They seem to have no clue of the biological factors involved in mental illness. And forget any compassion!
I have suffered from major clinical depression my entire life. Most of my family think I'm a loser because I haven't "pulled myself up by my bootstraps". Yet 3 of my sisters also suffer from depression, but won't seek help because "they aren't weak like you are and can handle it on my own". This means they shop and carry huge debts for crap they don't need, producing further depression!!!
They also watch fux news, admire Mann Coulter and voted for the *.
Brainiacs, one and all!!

[brainshrub]

9. Depression strikes everyone equally.

It's like blaming someone for moral weakness if they come down with pneumonia.

The difference between Libs and Cons is that we understand that there is no such thing as "Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." We only succeed, or fail, in the context of our social structure and health.

If a brilliant, hardworking individual lives in a society that does not have a roads, a court system or healthy workers; it will effect what she will be able to do with her life. If that same individual develops depression, it will further cripple what she is able to give back to society.

By fighting for the right of all Americans to have access to the blessings of Liberty such as as highways, a police force and health-care; the individual is able to achieve her highest ideals.

[Mnemosyne]

10. It has destroyed my life and was finally

found to be symptoms of mercury toxicity.

I am working on detox, but it has caused much damage that can't be reversed.

I used to be that brilliant hardworking individual, now I use a cane and can't always find my words or the energy to even go out into society.

I am planning to go to DC in Sept, it will be a major shock to my hermit existence!! But I have to do it, my hatred of this regime outweighs my need to hide in my house.

[Sgent]

11. So what part of training do the recommend taking out?

Although I agree in theory that they could use training, the question becomes in lieu of what?

Traditionally pediatritians, pediatric dentists and (to a lesser extent) Family Practice docs have always had some trianing. They may not be polite, they many not be particularly sensitive, but they know the science.

In the last 5-10 years they've added huge amounts of of "required knowledge" to those specialities, while cutting the training significantly as well. There is only 7 years to train. Do the substitute a knowledge of how to read pediatric EKG's? Maybe treating juvinille diabetes isn't that important to treat... etc, etc.

Finally, there is a speciality that deals with nothing but children of these types -- Developmental Pediatrics. Maybe they should push for more people to go into that field.

[HuckleB]

12. Sorry to disagree.

But while they may have gotten training, it's awfully difficult to find docs who know what to do with it.

And I don't know many docs who find the current residency system to be the most efficient training mechanism as it is now (to be kind). I don't suspect that the training has to be in lieu of anything, with that in mind.

[Sgent]

13. Not arguing with you

but then we need systematic change to the system as a whole. To add one piece means something else will come out (even if its scut work).

[HuckleB]

14. Yeah, I agree with that.

It seem like it's about time that someone took a serious look at the whole system. It's hard to believe that it can't be improved upon.

[pilgrimm]

15. I have worked with people who have who have developmental disabilities

and people with mental illness. They both get shit health care, but people who have are retarded get better treatment than the mentally ill in my opinion. There are many reasons why they don’t get adequate health care. It seems that the most basic is that there is more sympathy for those who are retarded, where as the mentally ill are stigmatized.

I don’t like the term intellectual disabilities myself. I think that developmental disabilities is more accurate and retarded is easier and just as accurate.

[CAG]

16. You would think with "one of their own" in control of the whitehouse

that people with intellectual disabilities would be taken care of well.
:-)