Programs
Adults and Elders
Autism
Center
Barnard Center
for Infant
Mental Health
and Development
Center for
Technology and
Disability Studies
Clinical Training
Unit
Community
Disability Policy
Initiative
Experimental
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Genetics
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Community Roundtable Workgroup Initiative:
Issues of Importance for Adults with I/DD
Core Function: Technical Assistance and Outreach Training
The Adults and Elders Program works to improve health and quality of life for adults and elders with developmental disabilities through developing training materials, conducting research and advocating for systems change. A new vehicle for this work is the Community Roundtable Workgroup Initiative (CRWI). The CRWI involves the planning and implementation of a series of workgroups designed to address specific issues affecting health and well-being of adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities in Washington State. The workgroups are targeted at issues that have come to the forefront as significant problems and include relevant stakeholders from across Washington as participants. The goal of each series is to examine the issue from a variety of perspectives over a period of several months, develop and implement an action plan and produce a report. Participants are drawn from key stakeholders related to the issue at hand and may include persons with disabilities and their family members; health care providers; legal professionals; representatives from State agencies such as Developmental Disabilities or Vocational Rehabilitation; representatives from advocacy groups or professional organizations; or others who can contribute expertise or experience. Participation may be face-to-face or by teleconference, depending on the location of the participant relative to that of the meeting. The group identifies the key issues, collects and shares information on the topic and develops an action goal and implementation plan. The CRWI group officially ends with a final report, though action of individual members may be on-going, or continuation groups may be formed by the participants for related or further work. In addition to the written report, disseminated by the UCEDD, CRWI outcomes may include development of educational materials, policy initiatives or further information-gathering through research. The first of these groups addressed the topic of Informed Consent for adults who have no guardian and are unable to provide consent for needed health care. This group has been continued by members of the community and is currently working on proposing legislation to address the problem. Possible topics for future workgroups include: Health Literacy, and Excess Mortality Due to Aspiration.
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