Download Patient education for people with intellectual disabilities

 Patient education for people with intellectual disabilities
Laila Hoff Johansen 1
1
NAKU, NAKU, Nasjonalt Kompetansemiljø Om Utviklingshemming, Trondheim
Background: Knowledge of what causes lifestyle diseases and disease generally is very
important from a health perspective. WHO describes chronic disease as the world's biggest
health problem of the 21st century. Patient education is a statutory right in the Law of
specialized health care. The law says that patient education is one of the hospitals main tasks in
the same way as diagnosis and treatment. But does persons with ID recieve the same patient
education as others and how is the education organized?
Method: To gain knowledge of the types of patient education for people with ID, what the
education contains and how it is organized in practice, NAKU sent a written request to the
Habilitation centers for child and adult services and to the Learning and Mastery Services in
Norway, a total of 90 inquiries. It was specified that NAKU wanted descriptions of patient
education performed according to the Law of specialized health care. If the education had been
evaluated, we also wanted a description of this. We completed a qualitative analysis of the
documents that were sent us,and looked for evaluations of the patient education.
Results and conclusion: NAKU received 38 feedbacks, a response rate of 42%. Of these 24% of
respondents said that they offered patient education for persons with ID in line with the Law of
specialized health care. The education that was offered had courses about diet, lifestyle and
physical activity, body, sexuality and identity, as well as courses on adult life, rights and social
skills training. Few had carried out a systematic evaluation of the education and could not say
anything about the effects of the education in the longer terms. It was pointet out that there is a
strong need for support not only within the course, but also from the social environment and
people close as well. The conclusion is that we have some patient education for people with ID
in Norway, but we don’t know much about the effects the eduaction has.