Clinical Services: Video Learning
Providing medical care to people with disabilities is no easy task. Practitioners often receive little training in providing care to people with disabilities, and most see few patients with disabilities in their offices. Combine that with the difficulties of challenging behavior and the time constraints of a medical practice, and it becomes difficult to provide effective care. The DIDD Health Services team realizes this. To improve outcomes, we are engaged in the ongoing production of a series of video lessons. We realize time is valuable, so we keep each video short so they can fit into your busy schedule. We hope these videos spur further interest in the unique facets of caring for people with disabilities. We believe all of these videos have benefit for any viewer, but we have put the titles of videos with the most benefit for families and caregivers in bold.
General Health Topics
Making the Most of Medical Appointments
In this series, Dr. Cheetham shares a primary care provider's perspective on the typical appointment. He gives you insight into time management, information gathering and presentation, and tips for a successful medical appointment. This series is designed to give patients, parents, and other caregivers the information they need to make every medical appointment effective. You can view the series of videos at this link. This video series makes reference to a pair of tools you can use to document the patient's information for better care.
In this video, Dr. Cheetham walks you through the Behavioral Problems and Emotional Concerns Caregiver Checklist. The Caregiver Checklist documents behavior problems and emotional concerns with an emphasis on change in the person supported. Compared to when the person was at their best, what changes have been documented? This tool also examines possible physical health problems and pain, issues with supports, emotional changes, and specific caregiver concerns.
In this video, Dr. Cheetham walks you through the Behavioral Problems and Emotional Concerns Provider Checklist. The Provider Checklist includes special considerations to address the overprescription of psychotropic medication for people with IDD. It also reviews possible medical conditions that might be at the root of challenging behavior and examines responses from the companion Caregiver Checklist tool to delve deeper into possible causes. The Provider Checklist concludes with a management plan to assess, address, and re-address the issues at the root of the person’s challenging behavior.
In this video, Dr. Tom Cheetham discusses a general checklist he's created to aid medical professionals in their interactions with people with an intellectual of developmental disability.
In this video, Dr. Cheetham shares insight into how doctors use a patient's medical history. What percentage of their diagnosis would you guess is based on medical history? Dr. Cheetham has important lessons for us as we take persons supported to see physicians and in our own personal visits to the doctor.
Importance of DSP's and Other Caregivers
When it comes to improving health outcomes for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, direct support professionals often play a crucial role. Dr. Cheetham has seen many times where a support person voices concerns about a person’s behavior that upon further investigation, leads to the discovery of a major medical problem. Direct support professionals should be empowered to play a part in identifying health issues that require attention, assisting with the medical visit, providing information for diagnosis and monitoring treatment. To further explain why a DSP’s voice can sometimes be a matter of life or death, Dr. Cheetham shares a personal story.
Behavioral Health Topics
Applied Behavior Analysis is one of the disciplines that plays an important role in the care of people with disabilities. In this video, Dr. Davis provides an introduction to ABA and the services that different professionals in this field can offer.
Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Chart
In this video, Dr. Davis explains the ABC Chart contained in the IDD Toolkit.