Home
Welcome to AADDM
The Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) was formed in September 2002 as a network of doctors with an interest in pursuing improve the health status of people with intellectual and developmental disability (DD). The main focuses are the professional development of its members and their clinical colleagues, and political advocacy.
The committee has continued to hold quarterly teleconferences and welcomes input from members. To address the professional development AADDM holds yearly conferences and produces an excellent newsletters (see below for recent examples).
AADDM has been and continues to be a major contributor to government policy with a remarkable history of successful advocacy leading to widespread changes in healthcare delivery throughout Australia.
AADDM in colloboration with the NSW Council on Intellectual Disability, successfully advocated over many years for the development of a Medicare item to fund general practitioners to perform year health assessments for people with intellectual disability. The Medicare item first became available in July 2006 and resulted in tens of thousands of health assessment being performed throughout the country. In 2009 AADDM provided the Hon Secretary Hon Bill Shorten MP with a literature review outlining the evidence for early intervention in children with intellectual disability, then in 2010 the Labor party announced funding for this process as part of their platform for re-election. These changes have now been delivered throughout Australia. In addition the National Disability Strategy sets out a ten year national plan for improving life for Australians with disability, their families and carers and includes specific suggestions made by AADDM & NSW CID under the sixth priority area; “Health and wellbeing—health services, health promotion and the interaction between health and disability systems; wellbeing and enjoyment of life.”
Join AADDM, support these activities and be part of an effective association that provides information and support and continues to improve the health of people with developmental disability in Australia.
Recent political activities
AADDM was involved in a daylong meeting between Jim Simpson (CID), Nick Lennox & Julian Trollor and various senior officials in the of Department of Health and Aging on 15th December 2010. The outcomes from this meeting are starting to produce tangible outcomes with inclusion of people with intellectual disability in the trialling of the eHealth systems. Nick Lennox has been meeting with Mark Gibson of who is driving the eHealth project in Brisbane and we have started to see how we can incorporate people with intellectual disability into their trialling of integration of health systems across large areas of Brisbane and Ipswich. From the public documents we understand that another site with a focus on people with disabilities will also be developed in through Greater Western Sydney eHealth Consortium (NSW Department of Health). For more detail, see the below material which comes from the Government’s National Health Reform Website at http://www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/Content/Home
In addition as Jim has reported in a recent email – “Over the last two months, CID and the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) have started a campaign for the mental health reform that seems to be developing in Canberra to specifically address the needs of people who have both an intellectual disability and a mental illness. We have been able to attract support from leading advocates and groups in the mental health sector who have supported the proposition.”
Our Proposition to Mental Health Policy Makers
- People who have both an intellectual disability and a mental illness need to be included from the start in mental health reform. They currently have very poor access to appropriate mental health services.
- Government needs to address this problem, in particular by funding specialised intellectual disability mental health psychiatrists and nurses who can act as a consultancy, training and research adjunct to mainstream mental health services.
This includes strong support from the Royal Australasian College of Psychiatrists whose President Maria Tomasic has expertise in intellectual disability mental health.
We have had an initial meeting with Mental Health Minister Mark Butler and Disabilities Parliamentary Secretary Jan McLucas. Mr Butler is keen to meet with us again when he has looked into the issues we have raised. We are also seeking a meeting with Shadow Mental Health Minister Fierravanti- Wells.
There is a lot happening politically and we have engaged with the key people on both sides of the parliament and we are sure that some very positive initiatives will be delivered, although we may not get what we want in the short term.
AADDM Postion statemens and submissions
Position statement as of March 2011
Conference 2011
AADDM will join the Society for the Study of Behaviour Phenotypes (SSBP) meeting on their clinical/education day planned for Friday the 7th October in Brisbane. We will hold our AGM at lunch time. The Clinical/Educational Day has as its main theme “Current advances in therapeutic approaches in Genetic syndromes and Behavioural phenotypes”. For further details visit SSBP website – at http://www.ssbp.co.uk/ssbp/
The list of speakers is excellent and includes Plenary Speakers
- Prof Anthony Holland
- Prof Francis Bowling
- Prof Randi Hageman
Conference 2012
Dr Jacki Small & Associate Professor Julian Trollor and the organising committee announced the AADDM 2012 conference will be held on he Campus of the UNSW on the 8th to 10th March. See http://www.aaddm2012.com/
AADDM Aims
The aims of the Association are to:
- Improve the health of people with developmental disability across the lifespan;
- Establish a national standards for management of the health of people with disability;
- Endorse a national approach to delivery of health care in Australia for people with developmental disability;
- Continue professional development of doctors with an interest in the health of people with developmental disability.
To achieve its aims AADDM will focus on:
- Policy advocacy;
- Engagement of members and governance;
- Medical workforce professional development;
- Guidelines and uptake of evidence for medical management of people with developmental disability;
- Collaborative health service research and evaluation;
- Standards for service provision;
- Regional, national and international representation.
AADDM has adopted as its Principles the European Manifesto: Basic Standards of Healthcare for People with Intellectual Disabilities, which are driven by principles of human rights. This Manifesto states that:
- People with intellectual disabilities are citizens of their country and they have an equal right to be included in society, whatever their level of disability.
- People with intellectual disabilities have many gifts and abilities, but they may also have special needs and may need a choice of services to support their needs.
- People with intellectual disabilities have the same human rights as other citizens.
- People with intellectual disabilities have the right to equal participation in society and to participate in all decisions that concern their lives.
AADDM Priorities for 2010- 2015
- Lobbing for to establish multi-disciplinary teams throughout Australia
- Finalise our five year strategic plan
- Newsletter with lobbing, clinical and organisational updates.
- Webpage updating and further development
- Enhance the membership of AADDM
- Regular Conference organisation
View some examples of our newsletters
2011
2011 April Newsletter Issue 15
2010
2009
2009 March Newsletter Issue 10
2009 Feb Newsletter Supplement 1
2008
2007
2006
Mr Justice Carter’s speech at the Conference made an impression on everyone. One of my friends asked if the newsletter would print a copy of this speech if it is available. If no copy available it might be worth-while asking Mr Justice Carter to contribute an article for the newsletter in December.
Also, suggest the following article to be referenced in the newsletter:
Injuries, falls and accidents among adults with intellectual disabilities. Prospective cohort study
J. Finlayson, J. Morrison, A. Jackson, D. Mantry and S.-A. Cooper
JIDR Article first published online: 1 OCT 2010 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01319.x
HI
I am keen to use some of the information from the conference in a presentation whose deadline is 1 April
When will talks be available on this or the conference website?