Our Right to Quality Healthcare
By: Special Olympics Asia Pacific
Tags: Disability, Equality, Inclusion, Healthcare, International

In most parts of the developed world, access to quality healthcare is a basic human right we take for granted. It is a little known fact that people with intellectual disabilities do not enjoy the same rights.

Studies have found that they are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 50 than the general population.

The premature deaths of people with intellectual disabilities are primarily due to delays or problems investigating, diagnosing, and treating illnesses, and with receiving appropriate care.

When people with intellectual disabilities seek care, doctors are not trained to properly diagnose or provide quality care. As a result, many health issues remain hidden. For example, a man with an intellectual disability could be blind for 40 years and go undiagnosed because the doctor did not know how to adapt an eye chart and family members thought that his trouble reading was part of his disability.

Millions of people with intellectual disabilities are denied access to quality healthcare. This population faces isolation and inequality in their everyday lives.

Special Olympics is addressing these lapses through its health programming. It partners with organisations to provide medical equipment, including prescription glasses and hearing aids, free of charge to Special Olympics athletes around the world.

Through the Healthy Athletes Program, Special Olympics provides free health screenings across eight disciplines, from podiatry to oral health. Referrals to follow-up care is provided, if necessary. Healthcare professionals who volunteer with the Healthy Athletes Program are trained to provide care to people with intellectual disabilities in their own communities.

Such training and referrals have saved precious lives, for athletes who would otherwise not have received appropriate treatment, or would not have had their conditions properly diagnosed.

Special Olympics also works with healthcare organisations to create Healthy Communities, where there is year-round access to care, health education and wellness opportunities. The objective is to embed such services for people with intellectual disabilities in the healthcare system of each community.

Special Olympics Thailand has successfully embedded medical care for people with intellectual disabilities in their healthcare system.

In healthcare, prevention is often better than cure. Special Olympics conducts customized workshops in nutrition and fitness for athletes with intellectual disabilities to enable them to lead a healthy lifestyles.

Recently, Special Olympics athlete leaders from across the Asia Pacific were trained as Health Messengers, to become advocates for healthy living and for inclusive healthcare within their communities.

Apart from nutrition and fitness tips, they also received media training from industry experts from Fox Sports Asia and Toastmasters Singapore, to better equip them with public speaking and interview skills.

Special Olympics athlete leaders from across the Asia Pacific region receive professional media training from John Dykes of Fox Sports Asia.

Athlete leader Nazir Akmal from Malaysia, summed up his experience, “I want to inspire other people with intellectual disabilities to lead a full and healthy life, and to let the world know that we all deserve the right to quality healthcare.”