Intellectual Disability Essay

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This project will discuss the need for quality healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities. People with intellectual disabilities are not experiencing the quality health care that that are worthy of from health care professionals when they are hospitalized (reference). Those living with intellectual disabilities are a significant part of the American population. Individuals with intellectual disabilities often times struggle with complications such as, asthma, gastrointestinal symptoms, skin allergies, migraines, headaches, and consequently seek help from healthcare professionals on a regular basis and often experience discrepancies in the care they receive (reference). The reason for the lack of quality health care for those who …show more content…

People with intellectual disabilities can and do learn new skills, but they learn at a slower process. There are varying degrees of intellectual disability, from mild to profound. In society today, mental retardation is no longer the appropriate political terminology when referring to people with an intellectual disability or developmental disability. Today the term used in the medical professional is intellectual disabled.
Healthcare professionals lack experience and education on how to work with hospitalized patients with intellectual disabilities (reference). Admittance into the hospital can put a lot of stress on individuals with ID as well as their caregivers, and the healthcare professionals involved. Balancing the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities is a challenge for many professionals throughout the hospital due to multiple factors have produced years of social oppression, institutional discrimination, and attitudinal barriers. Communication is the key to maintaining a seamless flow between health care professionals and their special need patients. By advocating for a reform in training of health care professions, this would help with increasing the quality of services provided for those with intellectual …show more content…

This knowledge and research is important for creating a standard model that would be used for those suffering from ID while hospitalized, their caregivers, and all other health professionals. The model will increase the awareness of the intellectual disability, identify the importance for medical professionals to have specific education for treating people with intellectual disabilities, demonstrate how to practice self-centered care, pinpoint the barriers to quality care for those with intellectual disabilities, and ultimately advocate for intellectual disabled patients in need of better services when hospitalized. The researchers hope to gain a solution for providing quality health care for patients with intellectual disabilities when they are placed in the

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