Special Olympics & PAHO Team Up For #InclusiveHealth
On 27 September 2017, over 40 countries adopted a progress report on the status of health and human rights within their borders. This progress report, which was commissioned by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and in alignment with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), for the first time ever, contained several recommendations based on Special Olympics’ data on health care for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) in those countries.
People with ID struggle to access quality healthcare that meets their needs. As a result, they have a higher risk of many preventable health conditions.
Special Olympics recognizes that in order to perform at your best, you need to feel your best. In accordance with this belief, the organization collects data on the health of its athletes all across the world. PAHO’s inclusion of Special Olympics’ data marks the first time that an international inter-governmental agency has endorsed its findings in public health reports. Some key findings include higher rates of hearing loss, tooth decay, and obesity in athletes compared to the general population.
PAHO, the organization which commissioned this report, is a part of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is a United Nations (UN) agency dedicated to health. It serves as the health agency for the Inter-American System.
Additionally, we see this collaboration with PAHO & WHO instrumental to:
- Delivering Special Olympics’ Healthy Athletes data to Ministries and Departments of Health around the world in order to make national health services more inclusive for people with ID
- Facilitating the training of health workers to be inclusive of people with ID and in-line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Developing E-training courses and other tools for international aid workers and national health workers on treating people with ID
- Facilitating direct dialogue between Special Olympics athletes, programs and health authorities around the world
- Creating new partnerships to strengthen the web of follow-up care and referrals people with ID receive
As an immediate result of this report and the recommendations to health departments, Special Olympics Jamaica hosted a two-day Healthy Athletes Training & Screening event for athletes from Manchester and St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. As part of the event, trained medical clinicians provided free eye, ear, and dental exams. Through a collaboration with PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, Lions Clubs International, Digicel, and the Breds Foundation, 6 medical doctors had the opportunity to observe the event. Additionally, health workers from several Ministries of Health within the Caribbean also observed in order to better understand the health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. Through this event, Special Olympics athletes in Jamaica will now have 25 new clinicians for future Healthy Athletes events as well as referrals and follow-up care.
As we work to create equal access to health care for people with intellectual disabilities, better known as #InclusiveHealth, the importance of collaborations like this one with PAHO, become invaluable.
As an immediate result of the existing collaboration between Special Olympics and PAHO/WHO, on November 28 both organizations entered into an agreement of technical collaboration to support and promote the expansion of inclusive health for people with ID. The agreement was signed at the PAHO/WHO Headquarters in Washington D.C. by the Director of PAHO/WHO, Dr. Carissa Etienne and the Chairman of Special Olympics, Tim Shriver.
