The Spokane (WA) Regional Health District has partnered with the Spokane Health Improvement Partnership to mobilize the community around disability issues and prevention of secondary conditions. The Washington State Department of Health supports this effort, with funding from the state-level disability prevention program of the CDC's Office on Disability and Health. The partnership's Community Advisory Board quickly discovered the need for data on questions on service coordination, barriers to participation and children's needs. Census and local data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance (BRFS) disability survey were helpful, but local data were needed. In response the partners, the Advisory Board and the University of Washington interviewed 98 adults with disabilities and parents of 53 children with disabilities, both volunteers and those reached through service providers. This paper will describe the resulting relatively inexpensive but rich data, and how they present a segment of the population of people with disabilities that is poorer, more limited, and more likely to use services than that captured by the BRFS. Data on barriers to participation will be used to show how the two data sources complement each other . The presentation will also describe the process by which the partners shared the data with the Advisory Board and community, and used them to develop interventions to improve access.
Learning Objectives: --describe how targeted local data gathering can guide community interventions to prevent secondary conditions --understand how local BRFS disability data can be complemented with other local disability data
Keywords: Disability, Community-Based Health Promotion
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.