Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have long experienced disproportionately higher rates of…

Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have long experienced disproportionately higher rates of treatable health disparities. Research shows that about 40% of adults with IDD live with four or more comorbidities, resulting from a lack of health and wellness resources and accessible, culturally competent primary and specialty care. Additionally, the longstanding absence of IDD content in medical school and health science education naturally results in significant gaps among healthcare providers in clinical competence and treatment of health problems among people with IDD. These factors combine to result in cascading disparities, drive higher costs, and result in poorer health. As in other parts of the united states, people with IDD and their families in the DMV region lack access to primary and specialty healthcare that delivers improved health outcomes. Many people with IDD access healthcare through local hospital emergency departments (ED) or not at all. ED medicine is acute and trauma-focused healthcare designed to address immediate needs and refer patients to primary and/or specialty care. For people with IDD, this comes at a high cost with little, lasting impact on underlying causes that are far more efficiently and appropriately addressed in accessible, culturally competent, and responsive primary care. In addition, the costs of care provided in EDS are higher in the short and long term. Approximately 60% of the US's 7.4M people with IDD rely on medicaid for health insurance. Extensive research shows they use far more healthcare resources at a higher cost per capita than their peers without IDD. With considerably higher chronic disease loads, their costs remain high through the lifespan-with higher rates of polypharmacy, hospital admission, 30-day readmission, and high-cost imaging diagnostics, to name a few of the cost drivers-resulting in higher mortality. Makom anticipates and/or has already established PAR tnerships in support of this healthcare delivery system project with georgetown university, university of maryland school of dentistry, maryland's developmental disabilities administration, montgomery county's department of health and human services, and others. The fully developed project is an accessible, relevant, multidisciplinary/multi-system of care and integrated physical, dental, and behavioral/mental health in a primary care setting designed with and for people with IDD that does not exist in the DC metropolitan area. This montgomery county-based, groundbreaking clinic will be modeled after similar successful models in other parts of the country while being customized to the resources, needs, and dynamics of the DMV community, and aims to accomplish numerous goals, including but not limited to improving the overall healthcare for people with IDD (a healthy people 2030 priority); the creation of a national center of excellence in health education to provide formal community-based clinical training to health profession students on the healthcare needs of people with IDD; and, increasing community capacity to welcome people with IDD in primary care settings that are less costly and more appropriate use of healthcare resources than emergency rooms. Makom's immediate priority is purchasing the specialized medical equipment necessary to build the clinic. Medical equipment needed to open such a model (for example, high/low examination tables, dental operatory equipment, basic diagnostic systems, and more) is estimated at $1,000,000. As these are capital expenses needed to launch the clinic, the program would be sustainable without the need for supplemental funds.