Download: Atlas on the Primary Care of Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Ontario
Source: ICES
Lunsky Y, Klein-Geltink JE, Yates EA, editors. December 2013
The Issue
Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care focuses on becoming healthier, with improved access to integrated family/primary care and a major emphasis on the provision of the right care at the right time and in the right place. These priorities are particularly relevant to individuals with developmental disabilities: research from other jurisdictions would suggest that they have higher rates of preventable diseases, greater challenges obtaining guideline-recommended primary care3 and higher associated health care costs.4 However, the health status and
health care of adults with developmental disabilities have not been well studied in Ontario, due to the absence of population-based data. The work of the Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD) Program is in direct response to Ontario’s call to action through addressing this data gap. The first H-CARDD project, conducted in partnership with decision makers and clinicians from the health and social services sectors, has focused on primary care.
The Study
The Atlas on the Primary Care of Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Ontario provides, for the first time in Canada, descriptive information on the health of adults with developmental disabilities in Ontario and examines the quality of their primary care relative to adults without developmental disabilities. Findings have relevance in Ontario and in other jurisdictions where there is interest in improving health care and the health status of those with developmental disabilities.