Disability Health

People with disabilities can face obstacles to obtaining the information and services that are necessary to achieve and maintain good health. These obstacles include:

• the lack of physical access to hospitals and doctors' offices.
• obtaining information in an accessible format (such as materials in the appropriate cognitive level, Braille, large print, or American Sign Language).
• encountering attitudes that may prevent healthcare providers from seeing a person with a disability as a whole person.

In addition to these obstacles to good health, people with disabilities are at greater risk for secondary conditions (like diabetes, obesity, and arthritis) than people without disabilities.

The Michigan Health Promotion for People with Disabilities Initiative is a statewide partnership committed to reducing the health disparities between people with disabilities and people without disabilities through member collaboration, expertise, and leveraged resources.

This initiative will address health disparities in people with disabilities through four dimensions:

• Improving the access of people with disabilities to health care and health screening
• Promoting management by people with disabilities of their own health and risks
• Improving the response of health providers to people with disabilities
• Integrating disability and health into existing health promotion activities

Finding Your Way - A roadmap to Social Systems and Resources
 

For additional information, please contact:
Alice Frame, Program Coordinator
FrameA@michigan.gov