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HomeThe Health Disparities and Development Disabilities Initiative is a statewide, collaborative, multi-organizational effort that is facilitated by the Waisman Center - University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities, Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy, and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. The initiative was formally begun in the fall of 2002, following a series of discussions that had taken place over the previous year to bring attention to the fact that individuals with developmental disabilities were experiencing less access to routine and specialized health care, and consequently higher incidences of illness and disease. Most notably these efforts included a special hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, a national listening session on health disparities and mental retardation, and a Surgeon General conference on the same topic. In follow up to these national discussions, the sponsors of the Wisconsin initiative convened an Invitational Conference on Health Disparities and Developmental Disabilities during which time they developed a series of 31 action steps which comprise The Wisconsin Blueprint to Improve the Health of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities. The Wisconsin Blueprint and its 31 action steps serve as the overall plan for the health disparities initiative. |
| Last updated by sanders@waisman.wisc.edu April 16, 2008 | |
