1. An Interprofessional Program to Educate Medical Students about Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Maureen Gecht-Silver, MPH, OTR/L1, Kiyoshi Yamaki, PhD2, and Susun Xiong2 1University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Family Medicine; 2University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Disability and Human Development
Introduction
Program Objectives
Sample Program Topics
Understanding High Blood Pressure
Coping with the Fear of Shots
Why Get the Flu Shot?
What Happens at an Annual Checkup?
Talking to your Doctor about Bowel Movements
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) such as Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Autism Spectrum Disorders experience health disparities compared to the general population.
One of the barriers is lack of adequately trained healthcare providers, which contributes to existing health disparities.
To address this gap, an interprofessional team consisting of a medical educator, a disability and public health expert, and a direct service provider collaborated to develop a service learning experience for third year medical students during their family medicine clerkship.
By the end of the program, students will better able to:
Interact comfortably and respectfully with people with IDD
Adjust communication style and approach to accommodate needs of people
with IDD (e.g., use concrete examples for abstract concepts, include close
ended questions for non-verbal clients, and address the client/consumer with
IDD)
Provide educational interventions that target the abilities and interests of
people with IDD
Program Structure
Session 1 – On Site: Monday, 8:30am – 12:00pm
Orientation
Community agency tour, medical students interview consumers
Students reflect on interviews, define topics to address consumer
needs & interests, and commit to activity roles for session 3
Program Features
Student Feedback
Shift to medical student-centered programming
Focus on consumer/clients’ interests and needs
Create opportunities to sustain learning (e.g., post
session newsletters)
Emphasize collaborator input
Students expressed increased comfort and confidence working with the IDD population and feel better prepared to individualize their approach.
“…Having never worked with this population before, this was a great experience.”
“(The instructors) really engaged us and helped us think actively about this issue. Rather than lecture us, they asked us to come up with our own ideas. Also, they related all of what we learned to clinical skills.”
“Letting us devise our own plan and allowing us to constructively problem solve (was an effective instructor strategy).”
Session 2 – Classroom Session: Thursday, 8:30am – 10:30am
Public services history, social model of disability, provider
education video, evidence for improving communication
Student program planning for session 3
Session 3 – On Site: Following Monday, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Program rehearsal
Program implementation
Debrief meeting, and student program evaluations
Acknowledgments:
This project was supported, in part, by the Illinois Department of Public Health through
Cooperative Agreement 5U59DD000938, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the
Department of Health and Human Services.
The authors would like to thank UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago consumers and two staff
members, Terry Porter and Ana Diazdeleon for providing this learning opportunity to
medical students and National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
for supporting this project.