Online Learning To Support General Practice Care For People With Intellectual Disability- Royal Australian College Of GPs

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 05 Dec 2008 - 2:00 PDT


The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has launched a new online learning activity designed to support general practitioners and other members of the general practice team in providing high quality health care for people with an intellectual disability.

This educational activity, which was developed through an educational grant from The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and written by Monash University, Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria, is now available through the RACGP's online education portal gplearning at http://www.gplearning.com.au. By completing this activity GPs can earn category 2 QA&CPD points.

"General practitioners are often the first point of contact within the health system for people with an intellectual disability. Their complex health care needs can present a challenge and communication is the key to ensuring these patients can access the care they need," said Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President, and GP in Northern NSW.

"Studies have shown that communication can act as a barrier to high quality health care for intellectually disabled patients. This new education module offers an interactive and practical approach on providing high quality health care to people with an intellectual disability. As it is available online, GPs can complete this learning activity anywhere at any time," Dr Mitchell said.

According to Associate Professor Robert Davis, Director of Monash University, the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria, "GPs are ideally placed to deal with the complex problems often presented by people with intellectual disability. Research has shown that while they are willing to take on this role they are often restricted by the time involved. They have indicated that they would also like training in specific areas including the management of complexity, challenging behaviours, aetiology and support services."

The new activity, which is free for all gplearning users, focuses on a 28 year-old woman with Down syndrome, who presents to her GP for her annual health assessment.

After working through this module participants should be able to:

- Appreciate the health inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disabilities, the barriers to health equity and the role of the GP and practice nurse in addressing them
- Explain the implications of diagnosing the causes of an intellectual disability in a patient for their medical care
- Justify the importance of proactive orderly health management and preventative health strategies for people with an intellectual disability
- Perform a health assessment using the documentation provided by Medicare for items 718 and 719
- Compare the opportunities of working with a practice nurse to provide health assessments with the clinical situation of a doctor providing these alone.

The activity forms part of an active learning module compromising of eight activities, which will be released over the coming months.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is responsible for maintaining standards for quality clinical practice, education and training, and research in Australian general practice. The RACGP has the largest general practitioner membership of any medical organisation in Australia and represents the majority of Australia's general practitioners.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

• Additional
• References
• Citations