Inequities in Healthcare for People with Disabilities

In an effort to better understand where life-limiting inequities exist for people with disabilities, we started our work by conducting a gap analysis. A gap analysis is a tool that is used to help investigate and create a plan to fix a problem or issue, utilizing a 4-step process in which one identifies the current state of an issue, identifies the ideal future state, finds the gaps between the two and then creates a plan to close those gaps. We have focused our work to five main areas and have a subcommittee dedicated to each topic:

Mental Health/Suicide Prevention

Organ Transplants

Aging/End of Life

Prenatal Diagnosis

COVID-19: see below

For the COVID-19 Workgroup, the Gap Analysis provided us with evidence that there are inequities in healthcare vis-á-vis both the treatment of COVID-19 and the vaccination against COVID-19.  Such as: 

  • Rationing of critical care through Crisis Standards of Care (triage protocols)
    • Increased exposure/risk through institutionalized congregate care 
    • Lack of prioritization for people with disabilities for the administration of the vaccine.