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When an
individual with recognizable DD comes for a clinical appointment, one of the
first questions to answer is how will you obtain the past and current medical
history. Those who have disabilities affecting vision, hearing, mobility or
speaking may need specific accommodations. Some people are non-verbal. Those who are verbal should be engaged in
conversation both to build rapport as well as to gauge the degree to which
the individual can contribute meaningful information about their health and
concerns. Educate your staff who do appointment scheduling to request that
the patient be accompanied by a reliable historian if the patient is unable
to give their own history. This may
be family or attendant staff. If this
is a new patient appointment, also request specific medical records be sent
in advance of the appointment. You
may want to find out prior to the appointment the names of other doctors
providing care to the individual in order to solicit input and records. Since many of these persons have multiple
problems, they may be receiving uncoordinated care from multiple specialists.
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