The experiences of people with developmental disability in Emergency Departments and hospital wards
Section snippets
Participants
Participants for the study were recruited through three major non-government disability service organizations. Two organizations provided services only to people with developmental disability (e.g., intellectual disability, cerebral palsy), and one organization provided services to both people with developmental disabilities and those with acquired disabilities (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury). Criteria for inclusion were that participants have a developmental disability and were aged 18
Respondent characteristics
Of the 328 people who responded, 159 were male and 167 were female. They were aged from 18 to 80 years (mean=38 years). Twenty-eight of the questionnaires were completed by people with disability themselves, while 295 were completed by a support person (5 people didn’t answer this question). It was reported that 223 people had an intellectual disability and 238 had a physical disability, such that they used a wheelchair or needed help with mobility. People were asked to indicate the methods
Discussion
The first question addressed in this study was the frequency with which adults with developmental disability or people who support them report problems with care provided in Emergency Departments or hospital wards. Our ability to address this question was limited by the poor response rate, and the fact that only a little over a third of respondents (119 of the total 328 respondents) were reporting about experiences that had occurred within a year of completing the questionnaire. Despite this
Acknowledgements
Thanks are extended to the organizations and their clients who participated in this study and to Dr. Georgina Sutherland for her comments on drafts of the manuscript. Portions of this paper were presented at the Australian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability, Melbourne, November 2001.
References (33)
Attitudes of medical students and health-care professionals toward people with disabilities
Archive of Physical Medical Rehabilitation
(1993)Caring for a vulnerable population: Who will take responsibility for those getting a raw deal from the health care system?
Medical Journal of Australia
(1996)- Beange, H., & Bauman, A. (1990). Caring for the developmentally disabled in the community. Australian Family Physician,...
- et al.
Medical disorders of adults with mental retardation: A population study
American Journal on Mental Retardation
(1995) Mentally retarded patients: Special needs before and after surgery
AORN Journal
(1986)- Buzio, A., & Morgan, J. (2001). The experiences of adults with cerebral palsy during periods of hospitalisation....
Nursing the physically disabled in a general hospital
Journal of Clinical Nursing
(1996)- et al.
Replication of a managed health care initiative for people with mental retardation living in the community
Mental Retardation
(1994) - et al.
An evaluation of care coordination in controlling inpatient hospital utilization of people with developmental disabilities
Mental Retardation
(1995) - et al.
Parents’ experiences of general hospital admission for adults with learning disabilities
Journal of Clinical Nursing
(1999)
Learning-disabled people’s experience of general hospitals
British Journal of Nursing
Nursing the patient with severe communication impairment
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Attitudes of general practitioners to caring for people with learning disability
British Journal of General Practice
Behavioural outcomes of deinstitutionalisation for people with intellectual disability: A review of US studies conducted between 1980 and 1999
Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Knowledge, skills and attitudes: Medical schools’ coverage of an ideal curriculum on intellectual disability
Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Health care for people with an intellectual disability: General Practitioners’ attitudes, and provision of care
Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability
Cited by (90)
The opinions and experiences of people with intellectual disability regarding genetic testing and genetic medicine: A systematic review
2022, Genetics in MedicineCitation Excerpt :Such noninclusive care practices can compromise the quality of health care offered to people with intellectual disability and contribute to poor health outcomes. A more inclusive model of care that actively involves this population at all stages of health service development and delivery has been shown to reduce existing health inequities and improve health care outcomes.7 Intellectual disability can have both environmental and/or genetic causes.
Healthcare inequities among adults with developmental disability: An integrative review with implications for nursing education
2021, Nurse Education in PracticeEmergency department nurses’ knowledge, skills, and comfort related to caring for patients with intellectual disabilities
2020, International Emergency NursingCitation Excerpt :Research with people with ID and their caregivers, in both general hospital settings and EDs, has shown they do not feel respected by staff, and that staff harbour negative attitudes and beliefs about ID [35,23,17]. The literature also suggests staff tend to speak directly to the caregiver rather than the patient [9], patient needs are not always communicated or met, staff are discriminatory, and staff lack knowledge and skills in caring for patients with ID [35,16,37,9,23,7,17]. It is well known that EDs are fast paced, high stress, and high patient turnover environments with a focus on reactive care.
Identifying communication difficulty and context-specific communication supports for patient-provider communication in a sub-acute setting: A prospective mixed methods study
2024, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology