Improving healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities: the development of an evidence-based teaching programme

Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities,Volume 10, Issue 6, Page 333-341, November 2016. Purpose To develop and implement an educational programme to improve medical students ’ attitudes towards intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to improve the healthcare outcomes for individuals with intellectual disability. Design/methodology/approach The development of an educational programme involving actors with an intellectual disability as simulated patie nts. Scenarios were developed involving basic healthcare interactions. The programme was piloted in three sessions with 45 students. A qualitative analysis of student feedback was then used to develop a student attitude questionnaire for completion pre- and post-educational intervention. Findings The student attitude questionnaire was completed by 23 different medical students. Two domains were analysed: affect and understanding domain scores, mean difference (95% CI) 3.17(2.41-3.94) p<0.001, knowledge and skills domain scores, mean difference (95% CI) 4.22(3.3-5.14) p<0.001. Social implications Student feedback reveals significant positive changes in affect and understanding, and an improvement in knowledge and skill levels when interacting with people with an intellectual disability following the educational intervention. Some major institutions now offer comprehensive programmes involving people with intellectual disabilities as tutors, and in the role of simulated patients. However...
Source: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research