Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Concern for decline in the health status of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has increased as this population is living longer and shows signs of premature aging - i.e., use of aging-related health care services and frailty rates are much higher than the general population at much earlier ages. Though research is limited, there is evidence that maintenance and improvement of frailty status are viable goals of care, and frail adults with IDD can be successfully supported in the community. In the absence of an established body of evidence on specific frailty interventions for this population, we produced an international consensus statement on the best approaches to supporting adults with IDD who are frail in the community. We want to further disseminate the frailty consensus statement to educate adults with IDD, family members, health professionals, community organizations, policy members, and the general public in Canada and internationally, so that it can help to inform practice, decision-making, and promote partnerships within the health care sector, and between health and social services sectors. We will disseminate research findings in two different venues during the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) World Congress (Glasgow, August 2019), including: a joint Health/Aging Symposium (target audience: researchers, practitioners, decision-makers), an Academy workshop (target audience: caregivers, service providers). At the World Congress, we will host a scientific meeting of the authors of the international consensus statement. Prior to the meeting, each author will assume responsibility for identifying "how to" and other practical resources and tools to support one of the recommendation in the consensus statement. These will be reviewed during the meeting and incorporated into a set of practice tools that will form a "User's Guide" for the consensus statement.