Intellectual Disabilities and Health Care Communication: A Continuing Education Program for Providers

Communication with others is a core human imperative; this is especially true in health care. Individuals with intellectual disabilities often face daunting challenges in both health literacy and communicating their health needs and questions. Education for professionals in specialized communication is critical in improving care for their clients with intellectual disabilities. To address this issue, an educational framework, ID-COMMUNICATE, was created to guide improved interactions between health care providers and clients with intellectual disabilities and was further developed into a continuing education program. The modules of the ID-COMMUNICATE program focus on specialized communication techniques and strategies and related professional practice issues. This program can be disseminated in a variety of ways and is easily adapted for professionals in many disciplines. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2019;50(1):20-25.].