Name: Advancing healthcare access on Inclusivity and Disability
Uploaded: 2023-08-24T04:50:46.655Z
Duration: 308.87
Description: In this insightful video, disability advocate Emma Gierschick emphasizes the vital need for inclusivity in healthcare settings. Drawing from her experiences as a full-time caregiver for her daughter with Down syndrome and an intellectual disability, Emma discusses the barriers individuals with disabilities encounter.

Streamly Bumper V3 (mp4).mp4

Emma Edited.vtt

Subtitles

{{00:00:06}}
The way that the healthcare

{{00:00:07}}
settings can include, policies

{{00:00:10}}
and design to help include

{{00:00:11}}
everybody with a disability

{{00:00:13}}
would be to communicate with

{{00:00:14}}
them and to engage people

{{00:00:16}}
with a disability who are the

{{00:00:18}}
experts in their particular

{{00:00:20}}
needs when they're looking

{{00:00:21}}
at making policies and

{{00:00:22}}
procedures and processes.

{{00:00:25}}
It's very important 'cause

{{00:00:26}}
these are the experts.

{{00:00:51}}
I would say that the major

{{00:00:51}}
barriers that people with

{{00:00:52}}
a disability face in a

{{00:00:53}}
healthcare setting are

{{00:00:55}}
around accessibility.

{{00:00:56}}
And that can be the physical

{{00:00:58}}
accessibility, and it can

{{00:00:59}}
also be the accessibility

{{00:01:00}}
to the specialists.

{{00:01:02}}
It can also have complex

{{00:01:03}}
health needs and need to

{{00:01:05}}
see multiple specialists

{{00:01:06}}
at, over a period of time.

{{00:01:09}}
And so they can find

{{00:01:10}}
themselves going backwards

{{00:01:11}}
and forwards to multiple

{{00:01:12}}
appointments instead of them

{{00:01:14}}
being linked up together.

{{00:01:17}}
To make it a

{{00:01:17}}
little bit easier.

{{00:01:19}}
There's also barriers around

{{00:01:21}}
the awareness of health

{{00:01:23}}
professionals, and how much

{{00:01:25}}
knowledge they've got of

{{00:01:26}}
the person's disability or

{{00:01:28}}
communication challenges

{{00:01:30}}
where they're talking in terms

{{00:01:33}}
that might be difficult for

{{00:01:34}}
somebody with an intellectual

{{00:01:35}}
disability or a communication

{{00:01:37}}
difficulty to understand.

{{00:01:39}}
But one thing that is

{{00:01:40}}
important is that people

{{00:01:42}}
with a disability want to be

{{00:01:43}}
spoken to as an individual.

{{00:01:45}}
They don't want somebody

{{00:01:46}}
to speak over them as

{{00:01:48}}
though their, their opinion

{{00:01:49}}
isn't of importance.

{{00:01:51}}
The way that the healthcare

{{00:01:52}}
settings can include, policies

{{00:01:55}}
and design to help include

{{00:01:57}}
everybody with a disability

{{00:01:58}}
would be to communicate with

{{00:02:00}}
them and to engage people

{{00:02:02}}
with disability who are the

{{00:02:03}}
experts in their particular

{{00:02:05}}
needs when they're looking

{{00:02:06}}
at making policies and

{{00:02:07}}
procedures and processes.

{{00:02:11}}
It's very important 'cause

{{00:02:12}}
these are the experts.

{{00:02:13}}
So don't make decisions

{{00:02:14}}
and don't introduce things

{{00:02:16}}
unless you've actually got

{{00:02:17}}
a panel that includes people

{{00:02:19}}
with lived experience or

{{00:02:20}}
you're doing surveys or

{{00:02:21}}
you're talking to parents.

{{00:02:22}}
So you can find out

{{00:02:23}}
what the, the needs.

{{00:02:24}}
Really are and what,

{{00:02:26}}
what is of most benefit,

{{00:02:28}}
but I think also to be

{{00:02:29}}
mindful as well, that

{{00:02:30}}
it's very difficult to

{{00:02:31}}
do a universal design.

{{00:02:33}}
There has to be flexibility

{{00:02:34}}
around that because one

{{00:02:35}}
design does not fit all.

{{00:02:37}}
It is vital that people with

{{00:02:38}}
a disability are included at

{{00:02:39}}
all levels of, collaboration,

{{00:02:42}}
all levels of policy making.

{{00:02:44}}
All levels of communication,

{{00:02:46}}
in terms of how they can

{{00:02:49}}
best be supported within

{{00:02:50}}
the healthcare system.

{{00:02:51}}
So you, you can't make

{{00:02:53}}
decisions unless you

{{00:02:54}}
actually are walking in

{{00:02:55}}
somebody else's shoes.

{{00:02:57}}
I think the top priorities for

{{00:02:58}}
policy makers and governments

{{00:03:00}}
and decision makers,

{{00:03:01}}
Regarding making decisions

{{00:03:03}}
that include, that are about

{{00:03:04}}
people with a disability

{{00:03:06}}
are that they include people

{{00:03:08}}
with a disability, they

{{00:03:10}}
get feedback, they ask do,

{{00:03:12}}
you know, provide surveys.

{{00:03:14}}
They, actually ask

{{00:03:16}}
people, what do they need?

{{00:03:18}}
What do they want?

{{00:03:19}}
What would better serve them?

{{00:03:21}}
How can the service that is

{{00:03:22}}
being provided be improved?

{{00:03:24}}
And to not just listen, but

{{00:03:26}}
to actually act on it and

{{00:03:28}}
take the comments on board.

{{00:03:30}}
And I think one of the things

{{00:03:34}}
that's really important

{{00:03:35}}
is to make sure that the

{{00:03:37}}
information that's provided

{{00:03:38}}
is actually acted upon.

{{00:03:39}}
So it's not just rhetoric and

{{00:03:41}}
doing a, a paper exercise that

{{00:03:43}}
it is acted on and there's

{{00:03:45}}
a timeframe and there's also

{{00:03:46}}
a review period as well to

{{00:03:48}}
see if the policies and the

{{00:03:51}}
things that have been put in

{{00:03:52}}
place are actually working and

{{00:03:55}}
if they need to be tweaked,

{{00:03:56}}
the way that we can increase

{{00:03:57}}
awareness of disabilities in

{{00:03:59}}
within the healthcare setting

{{00:04:00}}
is, following a model that

{{00:04:03}}
Down Syndrome Australia have

{{00:04:04}}
in implemented this year.

{{00:04:06}}
And they have employed 10

{{00:04:09}}
people with a disability or

{{00:04:11}}
people with Down Syndrome and

{{00:04:12}}
an intellectual disability

{{00:04:13}}
as a health ambassador.

{{00:04:15}}
So these people are paid award

{{00:04:16}}
wages and their job is to go

{{00:04:19}}
out to hospitals and to go out

{{00:04:20}}
to medical settings and go to

{{00:04:22}}
universities and talk to the

{{00:04:23}}
students and the practitioners

{{00:04:25}}
and the policymakers

{{00:04:27}}
and actually speak.

{{00:04:29}}
With the voice of the

{{00:04:30}}
lived experience about

{{00:04:32}}
what can support them, and

{{00:04:34}}
people with an intellectual

{{00:04:35}}
disability to when they

{{00:04:37}}
have to access healthcare.

{{00:04:39}}
So again, it's about going

{{00:04:40}}
back and listening to the

{{00:04:43}}
voice of the lived experience.

{{00:04:45}}
But there are ambassadors

{{00:04:46}}
and I think what would be

{{00:04:48}}
really helpful would be for

{{00:04:50}}
people with other disabilities

{{00:04:51}}
to also be employed at

{{00:04:52}}
support at award wages.

{{00:04:55}}
That can also be a

{{00:04:56}}
representative voice.

{{00:04:58}}
To policy makers about

{{00:04:59}}
what, um, can be done

{{00:05:01}}
to help serve them.

Expert Insight

In this insightful video, disability advocate Emma Gierschick emphasizes the vital need for inclusivity in healthcare settings. 

Drawing from her experiences as a full-time caregiver for her daughter with Down syndrome and an intellectual disability, Emma discusses the barriers individuals with disabilities encounter. 