Dr. Maulik Trivedi, an ER Surgeon in New York City, NY and owner of telemedicine platform, Station MD, recently addressed several providers who serve the intellectual disabilities population and enlightened us with front-line information that we all need to keep in perspective as this virus spreads.
Dr. Trivedi granted CreateAbility permission to summarize his words and encouraged us to publicly share this information and key challenges to consider immediately:
- The IDD population have more co-morbidities, and therefore are at a more elevated risk. For this reason and the gross overload of hospitals dealing with COVID-19, the MOST IMPORTANT takeaway is to provide supports to keep people with IDDs away from hospitals and emergency rooms right now unless it is an absolute necessity!
- Isolation does not work well for people with an IDD. More unique solutions and protocol need to be created for when client and/or care provider contract the virus.
- Due to executive functioning and recall challenges, social distancing does not work with most people who have intellectual disabilities. Additional efforts must be made for protection and containment of the virus within this population.
While this is not a time to be opportunistic, CreateAbility provides assistive technology and remote monitoring solutions that will help with the prevention and transmission of COVID-19 within the ID community. In addition, we offer online, avatar-led assessments that will help you monitor your clients’ health and emotional well-being without having to be in close contact and a communication platform to stay in touch (while staying safe) in an engaging way throughout these challenging times.
Most recently, we have created several quick deployment kits that will help with the prevention of the virus and lessen transmission between people with intellectual disabilities and their care providers. If you are interested in learning about these solutions, please click HERE.