Project Description:
The Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center mini-grant supported the creation, accessible infrastructure, and delivery of a virtual Inclusive Health and Disability Symposium focused on health and disability for the audience of healthcare professionals (primary care providers, public health nurses, social workers, behavioral healthcare providers, and community health workers). This learning opportunity's main goal is to build Wyoming healthcare professionals' capacity to provide accessible, high-quality, and culturally humble healthcare for people with disabilities.
To accomplish this goal, we address the topics of systems thinking and culture. The symposium addresses systems thinking by providing knowledge about disability history in our society, the many factors affecting these disparate health outcomes, and ways that health professionals can make changes in their practices to improve healthcare access for people with disabilities. Specific skills that will be addressed include integrating an understanding of disability history and its impact on health outcomes for people with disabilities, recognizing the models of disability (medical, social) and their application to health care of people with disabilities, and strategies to address the social determinants affecting the health of people with disabilities. The symposium addresses the topic of culture by building a culturally humble workforce, which is not only beneficial to the individuals served but also fosters a supportive and positive experience for healthcare professionals. Ableism permeates modern culture, without many of us even realizing it. Skills addressed include specific questions to ask ourselves to reduce bias, ways to incorporate universal design principles in various settings, and additional strategies for positive healthcare experiences from individuals with lived experience.
