"The doctor will see you now": Direct support professionals' perspectives on supporting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities accessing health care during COVID-19.
Y Lunsky, N Bobbette, A Selick and 1 others
PMID 33531290WHAT IT FOUND
Phone visits were most common, and comments were mixed.
Video visits were least common, but some direct support professionals found them helpful for clients with challenging behaviour. In-person visits were still used for dental care, bloodwork and injections.
Key findings
01Phone-based visits were most common, reported by 549 DSPs (58%), and comments were mixed: of 220 comments, 94 were positive, 57 were negative and 69 were neutral.
02Video visits were least common, reported by 204 DSPs (22%), but were described as helpful for clients whose challenging behaviour made in-person visits complicated.
03In-person visits were reported by 225 DSPs (24%), and 24 DSPs provided comments, of which 21% were positive, 29% were negative and 50% were neutral.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The findings are only direct support professionals' perspectives, not the perspectives of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities or their health care providers. Only a subset of survey participants gave open-ended comments, and the survey did not ask standardized questions about each type of visit. Many respondents experienced only one type of visit, so comments may not represent all modalities. Comments were often general, and 154 comments were excluded because the visit type was unclear. Most respondents were from Ontario, so findings may not apply where health and social care systems or technology access differ.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that phone or video care works better for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The study reports direct support professionals' perspectives only, and comments were mixed for each visit type. It did not ask patients or providers about the same visits.