Barrier-Free Health and Medical Services in Alberta Project

1. Barrier-Free Health and Medical Services in Alberta Project

2. Why we did it

3. Project Purpose • To identify the perceived barriers of people with disabilities when accessing health and medical services in Alberta. • To identify the needs of health professionals in the delivery of services to people with disabilities in Alberta. • To evaluate and develop strategies to assist in the removal of challenges and barriers in accessing health and medical services in Alberta. • To develop an awareness campaign for the development of barrier-free health and medical services in Alberta.

4. What we did ACCD conducted a multi-part needs assessment of the barriers that people with disabilities experience when accessing health and medical services in Alberta: • Systematic Literature Review • Community Consultations • People with Disabilities Questionnaire • Physicians Questionnaire • Site Visits

5. Physicians Survey • The Physicians Surveywas developed to assess the knowledge and the needs of physicians in Alberta in their provision of services to people with disabilities. • The survey was comprised of questions about types of practices, number of patients with disabilities, physical accessibility, availability of disability-related policies and procedures, and opinions regarding the current state of the health care system.

6. What we heard

7. People with Disabilities Survey • The People with Disabilities Survey was filled out by 464 individuals, representing urban, rural and First Nations perspectives about the barriers to health and medical services. • The results show that individuals with disabilities have unique needs that need to be addressed by the Alberta healthcare system.

8. What we heard

9. Site Visits: Accessibility Audits • The purpose for the needs assessment component of the project was to conduct accessibility audits according to a pre-established audit tool and gather information about the accessibility of settings that provide and deliver health and medical services to Albertans. • The intent was to compare various settings such as community health centers, physician clinics, and locations that provide diagnostic services, and present information that illustrates the current access to health care services for people with disabilities at the audited sites.

10. What we found

11. Barrier-Free Health care The results of the ACCD Barrier-Free Health and Medical Services in Alberta project cannot be summed up in a single overarching recommendation for creating barrier-free health and medical services in Alberta.

12. How should health and medical services be delivered to meet the needs of patients with a multitude of needs?

13. Albertans with disabilities deserve equity in healthcare services - the same services as Albertans without disabilities. Policies being created need to incorporate equity and quality of life as the foundation.

14. A Few recommendations from our participants

15. System-Wide recommendations

16. Disability Specific recommendations

17. Recommendations based on Collaborations

18. Establishing Barrier-Free Healthcare

19. “Our moral sensibilities and possibilities in relation to our lifesaving technologies will require more than the objectified clinical vocabularies and clinical language that we presently use. Perhaps such development cannot be accomplished without some public space for weeping and for considering illness and death as human passages and not just clinical courses of disease.” Patricia Benner Benner, P. (2004). Seeing the Person beyond the Disease. American Journal of Critical Care January 2004, Volume 13. Retrieved on March 8, 2010, from http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/cgi/reprint/13/1/75

20. Thank you If you would like to learn more about the project or the findings, please contact Melita Avdagovska at melita@accd.net or 780-488-9088. Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities 106, 10423 178 Street Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5