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Improving health outcomes for people with disabilities

5 October 2005

Monash's Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria last week hosted an international conference to discuss issues involved in caring for people with disabilities.

Minister for Community Services, Ms Sheryl Garbutt.

The conference combined the roundtable of the Health Issues and Mental Health Special Interest Research Groups of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability and the annual conference of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine. It was the first time these events were held in the southern hemisphere.

The conference was opened by the Minister for Community Services, Ms Sheryl Garbutt. It attracted clinicians, health professionals, health service managers and policy makers from around the world.

Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria director Associate Professor Robert Davis.

Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria director Associate Professor Robert Davis said the conference aimed to address issues involved in caring for people with disabilities; these included nutrition, the latest advances in cerebral palsy, the health of families with children with disabilities, the diagnosis and management of psychiatric disorders, genetics, and problems associated with ageing.

"People with intellectual disabilities are nearly five times more likely to die than other people of the same age and those with severe degrees of intellectual disability have a 20-year lower life expectancy than the general population," Dr Davis said.

"Research has shown that most Australian GPs see themselves as responsible for the primary healthcare of people with disabilities, but most say they are inexperienced with this group.

"Therefore, education and training for generic and specialist health professionals is essential, as is debate into appropriate healthcare delivery."