May 27, 2025; Silver Spring, MD:
Today the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) released Issue Briefs written by leading experts in the field in nine (9) key areas that contribute to the health and health outcomes of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Each writing team was multidisciplinary and included individuals with lived experience in disability, and each brief includes a plain language summary.
The topics addressed by the Issue Briefs consist of Consent and Decision-Making, Designing IDD-Competent Healthcare Systems, Ethics, Health Policy and Systems, Financing and Delivery Systems, Mental Health, Health and Wellness, and Social Determinates of Health.
An Issue Brief is designed to concisely summarize a specific issue, providing a clear overview on a complex matter and clarifying the results of any analysis. Often used to help educate policy makers, Issue Briefs can be valuable tool in policy analysis and decision-making.
The Issue Briefs are the first in a series of knowledge translation products that have emerged from a meeting hosted by AAIDD in 2024 with support from the WITH Foundation. The Issue Briefs are designed to summarize to current state of knowledge in nine broad areas that contribute to the health and health outcomes of people with IDD, and to identify a platform of national goals, and recommendations for research, practice and policy, that if implemented, could improve the health and health outcomes of people with IDD over the next 10 years.
The Issue Briefs are available on the AAIDD Website.
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Founded in 1876, AAIDD is the oldest professional association concerned with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Learn more about the organization at www.aaidd.org.