San Mateo, CA, October 30th, 2024 – The WITH Foundation is pleased to award over $1.2 million across nine different organizations as a result of a March 2024 Open Grant Cycle. These grants will fund programs that support healthcare equity for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“WITH Foundation is excited to support these projects as they foster healthcare equity for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We are pleased to support these organizations because their work further empowers self-advocates, communities, and supports comprehensive healthcare,” said Ryan Easterly, Executive Director of the WITH Foundation.
The following nine organizations will receive this funding:
Autism Society of America, Rockville, MD
The Autism Society of America’s Unlocking Care: Empowering Corrections Healthcare for Autism and I/DD Communities addresses the significant challenges that people with autism and intellectual or developmental disabilities who are incarcerated face. The project will support this multiply-marginalized population through the education and training of correctional healthcare professionals to better understand and meet the needs of adults with autism and intellectual or developmental disabilities. The areas of training will include: understanding autism and I/DD, special healthcare needs, behavioral interventions and support strategies, and alternatives to solitary confinement.
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Washington, D.C.
The Innovative Advocacy for Increased Fairness in Medicaid and Medicare Benefits Determinations from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law will examine the bias and error in algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) used to make Medicaid and Medicare benefits and eligibility determinations. This technology is resulting in thousands of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities losing needed benefits and access to healthcare in the United States. The project will build a coalition of disability communities and AI experts and advocates to develop legal and advocacy strategies for creating effective safety nets around how these Medicaid and Medicare algorithms are used for benefits determinations.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will develop a Virtual Certificate I/DD Training Program for Nurses that will provide comprehensive content on the healthcare needs of adults with I/DD to enhance the knowledge and skills of nurses employed in community-based settings, community care clinics, individual healthcare practices, and regional centers. The content will use an integrated approach and the American Nurses Association’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, 3rd Edition, with the input of an advisory committee of I/DD nursing experts.
Public Health Institute, Oakland, CA
The Center for Connected Health Policy, a program of the Public Health Institute (PHI) will work on Increasing Access for Patients with I/DD to Health Services via Telehealth. This project will develop materials that will provide educational information for both providers on how to adopt the technology to treat patients with disabilities and for patients on what one can expect and need to know about telehealth in order to access services.
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL
Rush University Medical Center will extend their Advanced Interprofessional Service-Learning Experience (AISLE), developed at RUSH University, to improve health care professionals’ competencies to partner with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their health in the project Extending Advanced Service-Learning with People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The program will create interprofessional education experiences in collaboration with community-based organizations in which teams of interprofessional students will partner with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Supported by staff, they will develop wellness goals with action plans over three telehealth visits, providing experiences meant to improve student interprofessional, disability, and telehealth competencies.
Spina Bifida Association, Arlington, VA
The Spina Bifida Association will be Reducing the Spina Bifida Adult Care Gap by training more clinicians in the care of adults with Spina Bifida. This population faces a severe shortage of medical providers in the United States as they age out of pediatric care. The Spina Bifida Association will work with patients and care experts to develop online training to meet the needs of the growing population of adults with Spina Bifida.
The Association for Successful Parenting, Baltimore, MD
The Association for Successful Parenting will build upon a 2022 WITH Foundation funded project, AccessAble Health: Empowering Healthcare Professionals to Support Parents with I/DD, creating training modules for healthcare professionals to improve healthcare outcomes for parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The continuation will build on the learnings of Year 1 and will bring just-in-time information and resources about supporting parents with I/DD in healthcare to an accessible learning platform for health providers.
University of Central Florida Foundation, Orlando, FL
The Holographic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (HAAC) Library from the University of Central Florida Foundation will innovate provider training and competency by leveraging holographic technology and the lived experience of people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Centering the expertise of people who use AAC, this library seeks to improve provider competency, empathy, and quality of care.
University of Hawaii Foundation, Honolulu, HI
In partnership with persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and informed by health professions faculty, the Center on Disability Studies (CDS) at the University of Hawaii Foundation will develop 12 flexible, online health professions training modules that center the voices and experiences of people with I/DD, and prepare health professionals to Advance Disability Justice within Health Professions Education. The curriculum will: (a) understand the workings of power and oppression (e.g., ableism, racism, heterosexism); (b) develop critical consciousness (e.g., disability consciousness, race consciousness), structural competence, and disability cultural competence; and (c) advance disability justice, health equity, supported decision-making, and trauma-informed care for people with I/DD.
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WITH Foundation (WITH) promotes comprehensive healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities in the United States that is designed to address their unique and fundamental needs.
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Press Contact: Sofia Webster
Director of Communications, WITH
