This tip-sheet offers guidance to family physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals for a person-centred health assessment of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It provides information on best practices to prepare for appointments and communicate and plan interventions using a person-centred approach to shared decision making.
In the video Keys to Success When Examining People With Developmental Disabilities family physician Dr. Grier introduces ways to adapt for physical examinations of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that promote success and reduce patient distress. By Curriculum of Caring, McMaster University, Hamilton, 2015. [8:27 minutes]
Keys to Success When Examining People With Developmental Disabilities from Anthony Levinson on Vimeo.
For more videos on how to adjust your clinical practice and communication, watch the Best Practice Series for Healthcare Providers, developed by Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto.
The UK publisher Beyond Words provides books to support people who find pictures easier to understand than words. Watch the video What are Books Beyond Words to learn more about using picture books to communicate better. Topic specific book sets about Health, Health Care and Healthy Living are available.
The tool Decision-making approaches for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, developed by the Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program of Surrey Place (2019), provides guidance on person-centred decision-making approaches.
This tool facilitates the implementation of the clinical practice guidelines Effective Communication and Capacity for Decision-Making, published in: Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: 2018 Canadian consensus guidelines, Canadian Family Physician, Volume 64(4), April 2018.
Learn how to use the information in this tip-sheet in your practice, from selected articles in the special issue Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Canadian Family Physician, Vol 64 (suppl 2): S1-78, April 2018:
Consumer inclusion: Experience of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities informs primary care Patient-centred primary care of adults with severe and profound developmental disabilities: Patient-physician relationship Supporting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to participate in health care decision making
Karen McNeil (MD CCFP FCFP), is a family physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has been practicing family medicine for 29 years, with Dalhousie Family Medicine 14 years and with special focus on adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities for the last 10 years.
Kerry Boyd (MD, FRCPC), is a psychiatrist with over 20 years of experience working with teams that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the lifespan. She currently works at McMaster Children’s Hospital and Bethesda Services. She is committed to improving the care of persons living with developmental disabilities through education. She is an Associate Clinical Professor for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. As an AMS Phoenix Project Fellow, Dr Boyd rallied a network of partners to develop the Curriculum of Caring for People with Developmental Disabilities to create web-based resources found at CommunicateCARE.machealth.ca.
Elizabeth Bell, MHSc. (Bioethics), BScOT, Director kidsTHERAPY and Bell Therapy Services, Toronto, Ontario
John Heng, MA, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Department of Interdisciplinary studies, King’s University College, London, Ontario
William Sullivan, MD CCFP(COE) FCFP PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto; staff physician in Medical Services at Surrey Place and the Family Practice Unit at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
Janet Vogt, PhD, Manager and Senior Research Associate, Surrey Place, Toronto, Ontario
The development of this tool started at a colloquium in Toronto, Spring 2018, and continued through multiple teleconferences and editing meetings. Working group members included: Elizabeth Bell, John Heng, Karen McNeil, William Sullivan and Janet Vogt. Kerry Boyd joined as a collaborator and assisted with editing.
The same literature search and evidence that supported the guideline Communicating Effectively in Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: 2018 Canadian consensus guidelines, Canadian Family Physician, Volume 64(4), April 2018 and the literature search for the article Circles of Care for Adults with IDD: Communication, Collaboration and Coordination in the special issue on primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Canadian Family Physician, Vol 64 (suppl 2): S1-78, April 2018 support this tool. The literature that had a clear influence on information in this tool are listed.
This is an update to a previous version of this tool, published as Communicating effectively with people with developmental disabilities. In: Sullivan WF, Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Initiative Scientific and Editorial Staff, editors. Tools for the primary care of people with developmental disabilities. Toronto: MUMS Guideline Clearing House; 2011, p.18-20.
In the video Keys to Success When Examining People With Developmental Disabilities family physician Dr. Grier introduces ways to adapt for physical examinations of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that promote success and reduce patient distress. By Curriculum of Caring, McMaster University, Hamilton, 2015. [8:27 minutes]
Keys to Success When Examining People With Developmental Disabilities from Anthony Levinson on Vimeo.
For more videos on how to adjust your clinical practice and communication, watch the Best Practice Series for Healthcare Providers, developed by Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto.
The UK publisher Beyond Words provides books to support people who find pictures easier to understand than words. Watch the video What are Books Beyond Words to learn more about using picture books to communicate better. Topic specific book sets about Health, Health Care and Healthy Living are available.
The tool Decision-making approaches for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, developed by the Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program of Surrey Place (2019), provides guidance on person-centred decision-making approaches.
This tool facilitates the implementation of the clinical practice guidelines Effective Communication and Capacity for Decision-Making, published in: Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: 2018 Canadian consensus guidelines, Canadian Family Physician, Volume 64(4), April 2018.
Learn how to use the information in this tip-sheet in your practice, from selected articles in the special issue Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Canadian Family Physician, Vol 64 (suppl 2): S1-78, April 2018:
Consumer inclusion: Experience of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities informs primary care Patient-centred primary care of adults with severe and profound developmental disabilities: Patient-physician relationship Supporting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to participate in health care decision making
Karen McNeil (MD CCFP FCFP), is a family physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has been practicing family medicine for 29 years, with Dalhousie Family Medicine 14 years and with special focus on adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities for the last 10 years.
Kerry Boyd (MD, FRCPC), is a psychiatrist with over 20 years of experience working with teams that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the lifespan. She currently works at McMaster Children’s Hospital and Bethesda Services. She is committed to improving the care of persons living with developmental disabilities through education. She is an Associate Clinical Professor for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. As an AMS Phoenix Project Fellow, Dr Boyd rallied a network of partners to develop the Curriculum of Caring for People with Developmental Disabilities to create web-based resources found at CommunicateCARE.machealth.ca.
Elizabeth Bell, MHSc. (Bioethics), BScOT, Director kidsTHERAPY and Bell Therapy Services, Toronto, Ontario
John Heng, MA, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Department of Interdisciplinary studies, King’s University College, London, Ontario
William Sullivan, MD CCFP(COE) FCFP PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto; staff physician in Medical Services at Surrey Place and the Family Practice Unit at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
Janet Vogt, PhD, Manager and Senior Research Associate, Surrey Place, Toronto, Ontario
The development of this tool started at a colloquium in Toronto, Spring 2018, and continued through multiple teleconferences and editing meetings. Working group members included: Elizabeth Bell, John Heng, Karen McNeil, William Sullivan and Janet Vogt. Kerry Boyd joined as a collaborator and assisted with editing.
The same literature search and evidence that supported the guideline Communicating Effectively in Primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: 2018 Canadian consensus guidelines, Canadian Family Physician, Volume 64(4), April 2018 and the literature search for the article Circles of Care for Adults with IDD: Communication, Collaboration and Coordination in the special issue on primary care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Canadian Family Physician, Vol 64 (suppl 2): S1-78, April 2018 support this tool. The literature that had a clear influence on information in this tool are listed.
This is an update to a previous version of this tool, published as Communicating effectively with people with developmental disabilities. In: Sullivan WF, Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Initiative Scientific and Editorial Staff, editors. Tools for the primary care of people with developmental disabilities. Toronto: MUMS Guideline Clearing House; 2011, p.18-20.