April 23, 2024 | Spring 2024

Inclusive Public Health Quarterly - Spring Edition 2024

AUCD News & Events

Annoucement of Disability and Health Secondary or Existing Data Analysis Awardees 

The Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD) through a partnership with The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is pleased to announce the recipients of our 2024 grants for the Disability and Health Secondary or Existing Data Analysis funding opportunity. These grants will support Massachusetts Department of Health, Utah State University, and Washington State University to conduct timely analyses of existing data to answer targeted research or policy questions related to disability and health.

Aging and Disability Vaccination Collaborative (ADVC) Project Update

Through a partnership with the USAging, AUCD worked to provide technical assistance to selected AUCD Network Centers to administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines to individuals and families through the You’ve Got This campaign. Led by USAging and funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living, the Aging and Disability Vaccination Collaborative grants helped communities stay healthy by focusing on those who need vaccines most—older adults and people with disabilities, particularly those from historically marginalized and underserved communities in which vaccination rates are low. As of March 2024, the selected AUCD Network Centers administered over 1,700 COVID-19 and flu vaccinations at 129 events in six states.

Medical and Dental Curricula on IDD: Training Inclusive Providers A Study on How Medical and Dental Schools Teach Students about IDD 

Past research has shown that many medical and dental students do not learn about IDD in school. The WITH Foundation, AUCD, and UC-LEND, led by Dr. Kashia Rosenau, collaborated to learn more about how medical and dental schools are teaching students about intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The study found that most of the schools had self-advocates to help them teach their medical and dental students about caring for patients with IDD. The study also found that medical and dental students want to learn more about caring for their patients with disabilities. Overall, the study highlights the importance of teaching medical and dental students about caring for patients with IDD and including more self-advocates in this training.

Annoucements

Mary Beth Bruder, PhD, Awarded the Council for Exceptional Children’s Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award 

Mary Beth Bruder, PhD, Director of the University of Connecticut’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, and professor at the UConn School of Medicine and the Neag School of Education, received the 2024 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award. CEC was founded by a special educator in 1922, and Bruder has been a member of the organization since 1975 when she joined as an undergraduate studying special education. The CEC Special Education Lifetime Achievement award annually recognizes an individual in the field who has made significant, continuous contributions to special education, through leadership in the field, development of effective programs, effective personnel preparation, and advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, among other areas. 

University of Hawai'i Health Equity and Disability Inclusion Leadership Training Program, Building a Culture of Belonging

At the 39th Annual Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity, Justice Shorter delivered an evocative keynote speech, opening with an invitation to “collectively breathe in the bravery we need to speak truths that so yearn to be told.” Throughout the Keynote, Justice poetically reveals how building a Culture of Belonging requires us to rise into responsibility with loving intention, and embrace Disability Justice principles such as solidarity, wholeness, and collective liberation. Drawing on her expertise in humanitarian crises and disability inclusive disaster protections, Justice’s keynote urgently exposes how structural ableism undergirds nearly every global public health issue and every structurally violent policy we face today. 

Resources from AUCD Network

New York State's Collaborative Health Care for Individuals and/or Developmental Disabilities

The University at Albany State University of New York has developed a training to support collaborative health care for individuals and/or developmental disabilities. The challenges people with disabilities experience when receiving health care services or participating in programs that promote health are monumental and can be overwhelming. Often multiple barriers make it extremely difficult or even impossible for people with disabilities to access and effectively receive healthcare. This Public Health Live will provide a background on overall health for people with disabilities, describe barriers faced by people with disabilities, and address how small changes within a provider’s office, engagement with patients, and collaboration with partners can improve healthcare for people with disabilities.

Responsive Practice Training for Health Professionals 

Two free, virtual health care education courses are available for health professionals. These modules enhance healthcare professionals’ ability to provide disability-competent care that is accessible to people with disabilities. The Responsive Practice modules can be taken online and on-demand. Free continuing education credits are available to physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Health & Disability Program

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Health & Disability program has collected a number of free resources to help organizations and communities plan accessible environments and events. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact the team here.

Providing an Accessible Environment: Tools designed to address accessibility for all in our community. 

• Massachusetts Department of Health: Massachusetts Facility Assessment Tool.

  This online assessment allows organizations to survey their built environment to ensure accessibility to people with disabilities. 

• National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD): Community Health Inclusion Index (CHII).

  This survey allows communities to assess organizations and other healthy living resources to understand their accessibility to people with disabilities.  

Providing Meetings that are Accessible: Tools to help ensure that your next meeting and event is accessible to all. 

• Massachusetts Department of Health: Planning Accessible Meetings and Events.

  This guide contains considerations for making events accessible to people with various disabilities.

• The Human Development Institute's Kentucky Inclusive Health Collaborative's The Game of Live

  This interactive website walks you through how to create accessible and inclusive virtual programs.

The Montana Disability and Health Program: Living Well under the Big Sky

The Montana Disability and Health Program (MTDH) is committed to promote and maximize health equity with individuals with disabilities. Backed by CDC funding, MTDH strives to prevent secondary conditions and chronic disease, improve emergency preparedness, and increase the independence and quality of life through strategic policy, systems, and environmental changes. Collaborating with Montana’s four Centers for Independent Living, MTDH trains staff with the Living Well in the Community, a ten-week evidence-based health promotion workshop to assist individuals in goal setting that supports overall health. They also collaborate to increase disability representation in community planning with Inclusive Interdisciplinary Walk/Move Audits, ensuring accessible, safe, connected, and healthy communities. The MTDH partners with the Developmental Disabilities Program to implement a Linkage Project, to link people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to needed health care and health promotion programs. The MTDH recruits, trains, and supports Disability Advisors to provide technical assistance and instill disability inclusion and wellness goals into public health planning at state and local levels. Within the Department of Public Health and Human Services, MTDH partners with other sections to improve the accessibility and disability inclusion of state chronic disease and health promotion programs. For more information, please visit the MTDH website [mtdh.ruralinstitute.umt.edu]. To learn more about the Disability and Health Data System, please visit the CDC page [cdc.gov].

Oregon Health and Science University, Emergency Preparedness (OHSU), UCEDD

OHSU would like to share some important new resources, free training opportunities and hear from you about what future training topics would be most helpful. OHSU in collaboration with people with disabilities from across Oregon, has created the Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities Resource Hub. The Hub includes videos, flyers, webpage links, and an updated version of the Ready Now! Emergency Preparedness Tool Kit. We are planning a second training that will be a two-part series intended for emergency preparedness professionals or organization representatives. This session will be an interactive discussion to learn more from each other about what ways you have worked with communities to increase emergency preparedness engagement, and any successes and challenges in those efforts. If you want to receive more info about this training, please sign-up for our email listserv. We would also greatly appreciate your input in shaping the content of the second training. Please answer a quick two-question survey.

Taking Charge of My Health Care Toolkit: Self Advocacy and Health Care Navigation

Self-advocates in Oregon often share that they face barriers when trying to navigate and access health care services, and that they want to be listened to by providers. In order to better support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, the Oregon Office on Disability and Health, the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, and the Oregon Self Advocacy Coalition developed a Toolkit to provide self-advocates with the knowledge, skills and tools to learn about how to best advocate for their health and health care. The Toolkit contains 11 modules related to various health care access topics. Topics include advocating for yourself, finding a new provider, medication management, and staying healthy, among others. Toolkit users can explore information in multiple ways, including chapters in plain language text, informative videos, and fillable worksheets. In addition to the modules, toolkit users also have access to 18 support person fact sheets and various supplemental materials to support health care access by people with disabilities.

Washington Department of Health Cooking Skills Training Module to Teach Youth with ID

It's not unusual to locate a culinary class in a grocery store, health facility, YMCA, or higher education opportunities. There is ample research on the impact of culinary instruction and positive health outcomes for individuals with disabilities, but little on program design or skill-set development. Creating a culinary program that promotes health and independence using the active engagement model is key! This virtual training module is for any new educator, support staff or caregivers who would like to advance cooking skills for individuals with intellectual developmental delay, cognitive and/or motor impairment.

Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND) Health and Disability Symposium

People with disabilities are two to four times more likely to become injured or die from emergencies and disasters than people without disabilities. The severe impacts of COVID-19 on people with disabilities are well known. The Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND) was recently awarded funding from The Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center to conduct a virtual Health and Disability Symposium on Friday, June 14, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm MT, with a one-hour lunch break from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm MT. The symposium will offer a unique collaborative opportunity to increase the understanding of the healthcare experiences and needs of individuals with disabilities among healthcare professionals with the goal of building healthcare professionals' capacity to provide accessible, high-quality, and culturally humble healthcare for people with disabilities. If you have any questions, please reach out to Emily Kirsch.

Public Health Team Resources

Public Health is for Everyone Toolkit 

AUCD's National Center on Disability in Public Health

AUCD Special Interest Groups (SIGs) 

Disaster, Climate Adaption & Disability Inclusion

Interested in the topic of emergencies, disasters, climate adaptation, and disability? Join the Disaster, Climate Adaption & Disability Inclusion Listserv. For any questions, please contact AUCD staff liaison, Nadja Agnew, nagnew@aucd.org

Health and Disability SIG

The Health and Disability SIG will have their next meeting May 8th 2:30 pm EST. Join the Listserv to join our next meeting or hear about upcoming ideas, planning, and next steps. For any questions, please contact AUCD staff liaison, Tida Sonetirot, tsonetirot@aucd.org

Nutrition SIG

The Nutrition is for Everyone SIG promotes discussion on nutrition and disability. Members can collaborate on and share nutrition resources, relevant health policy updates, issues affecting nutritional health, and more. AUCD's Public Health Team will be holding their next meeting April 24th at 4:00 pm EST. Join the Listserv for more information! For any questions, please contact AUCD staff liaison, Nadja Agnew, nagnew@aucd.or

About AUCD's Public Health Team