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Our Health Counts

End Deadly Disability Discrimination logo

Everyone has the right to healthcare without discrimination. However, people with an intellectual disability have much worse health outcomes than the general population.  

In 2019, Inclusion Australia joined the Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) to run the Our Health Counts – End Deadly Disability Discrimination Campaign.   

Our other campaign partners include Down Syndrome Australia, the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine and the Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (UNSW). 

The Our Health Counts Campaign has also been endorsed by 39 peak bodies, including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. See the full list of organisations that have endorsed this campaign.

Our advocacy  

Together with our partners, we have been advocating for:  

  1. Improved capacity in the mainstream health system to respond to people with an intellectual disability  
  1. The establishment of a national network of specialists in healthcare for people with intellectual disability as a consultancy and educational resource to the mainstream system 
  1. Better support in the disability service system for healthy lifestyles, access to appropriate health care and implementation of health professional advice. 

We wrote an open letter to all political parties contesting the federal election in 2019. 

We also made a submission to the Disability Royal Commission about healthcare for people with intellectual disability. 

Read our submission to the Disability Royal Commission.

A big win! 

We are very pleased to report a big win in this campaign, with funding announcements made in the 2021–22 Federal Budget. This includes:

  • $6.7 million to improve GP annual health assessments for people with intellectual disability
  • $1.4 million towards a National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health 
  • $4.6 million to include training about the needs of people with intellectual disability in university health courses. 

In August 2021, the Australian Government released the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability to address serious health inequities faced by people with intellectual disability. 

Read the National Roadmap in Easy Read.  

For more information about the campaign and next steps go to the CID campaign page.