San Mateo, CA, October 4, 2022—The WITH Foundation is pleased to announce that more than $360,000 will be awarded to six organizations as a result of our previous open cycle. These grants will fund a variety of programs that promote comprehensive and accessible healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities.
“We are pleased to support these efforts as they work to improve the capacity of the healthcare community to address the needs of adults with I/DD and advance inclusive medical education. These projects not only benefit the healthcare community and adults with I/DD, but also engage people with I/DD as leaders and experts,” said Ryan Easterly, Executive Director of the WITH Foundation. The following projects were selected for funding:
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) Silver Spring, MD
The Inclusive Medical Education Curricula Evaluation project is a mixed-method evaluation of inclusive adult medical and dental education curricula. Results will provide data on curriculum development expertise, representation of people with lived I/DD experience in curricula development and delivery, inclusion of transition from pediatric-to-adult healthcare content, uptake and implementation in both coursework and clinical settings, current status of curricula and quality improvement, open access status, and engaged partners. The project’s results will inform development of a manuscript to be submitted for publication and contribute to available literature on inclusive medical education.
Family Voices Lexington, MA
Through the Meeting Health Care Transition (HCT) Needs of Youth with ID/DD Who Have Been Incarcerated project, Family Voices and key partners will enhance the work of the National Health Care Transition Resource Center for Y/YA with ID/DD, a 5-year grant from the Administration for Community Living, to learn more about the needs of this population, provide leadership opportunities for young adults with I/DD who have been incarcerated, and develop resources on healthcare transition for youth and young adults.The project will disseminate a brief in print and through a webinar.
National Disability Rights Network Washington, DC
The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) seeks to build on the mounting momentum generated by its work on equitable access to healthcare and pandemic protections throughout the COVID-19 crisis for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with developmental disabilities. Each element of the proposed initiative, Decoding Discrimination and Sunstorm Stories Expanded, emphasizes the importance of informed consent, self-advocacy/determination, and protection against abuse/neglect. By raising public awareness and educating healthcare practitioners and centering self-advocates, NDRN intends to use the renewed funds to expand and enhance its current health equity work focused on people of color with I/DD.
Rutgers University Foundation New Brunswick, NJ
The Mental Health & Aging Across the Life Span for Adults with IDD project aims to increase healthcare providers skills to provide culturally appropriate and effective preventative, behavioral, and mental healthcare, while addressing the social determinants impacting the health of adults with I/DD. Through the I/DD ECHO training, conducted via interactive Zoom sessions, healthcare providers will receive training on effective communication techniques and best practice interventions to support a comprehensive approach to care across the lifespan of adults with I/DD.
UCLA Foundation Los Angeles, CA
The UCLA School of Dentistry Special Patient Care Clinic (SPC) will develop a new intervention serving adults with ASD and/or I/DD to improve care quality and reduce waitlists to provide more timely and effective dental care. With the Video Desensitization and Modeling for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), the clinic will develop, pilot, and disseminate a set of desensitization videos tailored specifically to adults with autism and/or I/DD, with the aim of enabling more individuals to be seen without sedation or anesthesia, and to provide community dental providers a tool to help keep patients from needing a referral.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville, TN
In 2013, the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) received a grant from the WITH Foundation to use Canadian tools created by Surrey Place’s Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program (DDPCP) and adapt them into an online resource, the IDD Toolkit, to enhance primary care for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the U.S. VKC’s dissemination work included providing training on the tools in Tennessee and nationally to healthcare providers and individuals and families. In the past few years, the Canadian team has updated its consensus guidelines and many tools. With this new funding, the VKC team will work with the DDPCP again to adapt the tools and disseminate the updated toolkit.
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WITH Foundation promotes comprehensive and accessible healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities in the United States.
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Press Contact: Laura Shumaker
Director of Communications, WITH
communications@withfoundation.org