Health self-advocacy training for persons with intellectual disabilities

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have unequal access to health care. While systemic efforts are addressing health inequalities, there remains a need to demonstrate that persons with ID can increase their health self-advocacy skills.

A randomised control design with up to 6-month follow-up was used to evaluate the 3Rs (Rights, Respect and Responsibility) health self-advocacy training program for persons with ID (n = 31). Training involved teaching participants to recognise and redress health rights violations in the context of respect and responsibility. Training materials included PowerPoint slides and interactive video scenarios illustrating health rights, respect and responsibility problem and non-problems. Two-hour training sessions were conducted twice a week in a group format where participants played a game and answered questions.

The health rights training group made significantly more correct responses on post training and follow-up tests than the control group. Training effects generalised to untrained scenarios and in situ health interviews.

The results of this study suggest that persons with ID can learn complex skills related to health self-advocacy. More research is needed to improve in situ generalisation.