Understanding IDD

According to the World Health Organization, over 1 billion people have a disability in the world today and the proportion of people over age 60 is increasing in nearly every country and is estimated to reach 1.5 billion by 2050.

It has become evident that there is a growing number of adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) that are living to become elderly to go along with the longer life expectancy of the general population worldwide.

People with I/DD are likely to be in poorer health and experience earlier age‐related chronic health conditions, including dementia, osteoporosis, oral disease, and diabetes.

To make matters worse, healthcare access has been known to be poor for adults with I/DD, resulting in more morbidity and earlier mortality. Gaining a better understanding of the unique challenges associated with the IDD population is essential to ensuring the appropriate support mechanisms are integrated to maximize planning and achieve enhanced outcomes.

Did You Know

In order to better our understanding of this unique population, we must also factor a person’s quality of life in the equation given this model has been used in the field of IDD as a framework for measuring personal outcomes, as well as a social construct to guide system-level quality improvement. This is also a good method for assessing service outcomes. Some additional factors we need to be aware of include, the importance of independence and personal development, self-determination, social participation which coincides with interpersonal relations, social inclusion, rights, and well-being which may translate to something as simple as material well-being.

If the individual likes wearing nice shoes, then you may need to prioritize shopping trips occasionally where he or she can purchase a new pair of shoes. When we spend time with this awesome group of people, we benefit by gaining a better understanding of the importance of quality of life.