Health self-advocacy training for persons with intellectual disabilities

Area of Science:

• Health equity and disability studies
• Health self-advocacy training
• Intellectual disability research

Background:

• Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) face significant health care access disparities.
• Systemic initiatives aim to reduce health inequalities, but empowering individuals with ID in their healthcare is crucial.
• Demonstrating enhanced health self-advocacy skills in persons with ID is essential for improving health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the 3Rs (Rights, Respect, Responsibility) health self-advocacy training program for individuals with ID.
• To assess if persons with ID can learn and apply complex health self-advocacy skills.
• To determine the generalizability of learned skills to untrained situations.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with 31 participants with ID was conducted.
• The intervention involved a 3Rs health self-advocacy training program delivered in group sessions.
• Training utilized interactive materials, including presentations and video scenarios, focusing on health rights, respect, and responsibility.

Main Results:

• Participants in the training group showed significantly higher scores on post-training and follow-up assessments compared to the control group.
• The learned health self-advocacy skills demonstrated generalization to untrained scenarios.
• Training effects were observed in simulated in-situ health interviews.

Conclusions:

• The 3Rs training program effectively equips individuals with ID to learn complex health self-advocacy skills.
• Findings suggest that persons with ID can be trained to recognize and address health rights violations.
• Further research is recommended to enhance the in-situ generalization of these crucial skills.