Disability and the Health Professions

This course will focus on health disparities experienced by people with disabilities. Many health professionals have the same misconceptions and fears about persons with disabilities that are found in the general public and physical barriers still exist in many, if not most, health delivery settings. The course will review the Declaration on Health Parity for Persons with Disabilities issued by the AAIDD. It will review the research on health disparities documented by the Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Research on Women with Disabilities and other sources. We will look at ongoing efforts to address these problems. Both the 2005 Surgeon General's Call to Action to Improve the Health and Wellness of Persons with Disabilities and the Institute of Medicine's 2007 report on the Future of Disability in America, stress the importance of strengthening the education of health professionals in this area. Indeed many health professionals still equate disability and illness. The strengths and weaknesses of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health of the World Health Organization as a conceptual framework for disability will be discussed in detail. The relationship between disability studies and the emerging patient-centered approach will be highlighted. The role of disability studies in the education of health professionals will also be discussed including the integration of narrative medicine into the curriculum of medical schools and the practice of physicians. We will also look at the challenges faced by health professionals with disabilities.

Fall