Bridge to Better Health: A cluster randomised controlled trial for capacity building in intellectual disability health for general practice

The Bridge to Better Health project is dedicated to enhancing the health care experience for patients with intellectual disabilities by boosting the capacity of practice nurses to implement annual health assessments in primary healthcare settings.

Why are we doing this?

• People with intellectual disability experience a mortality rate of up to 26 years earlier than the general population. This is often due to preventable causes, and barriers to care.
• Barriers to accessing care include such things as: short consultation times, service eligibility, service usability, communication skills, diagnostic overshadowing and more.
• Since the introduction of an annual health assessment as a MBS item, general practitioners have reported lacking the time required to complete them effectively.
• Nurses and medical staff receive minimal if any education about supporting patients with intellectual disability in their training. Leading to a lack of confidence supporting this population.

How do we plan to do this?

We will randomise practice into the intervention group and the usual care group.

Practices in the intervention group will receive for a year:

1. Practice nurses and general practices who are receiving the intervention will have access to a specialist intellectual disability nurse. This nurse will provide direct support via monthly check ins and support the facilitation of an annual health assessment.
2. Online education has been specifically developed in conjunction with health professionals, experts in the field and people with lived experience of intellectual disability. The content will aim to fill any gaps in knowledge for practice nurses and other practice staff about providing effective health care to patients with intellectual disability. This education can count towards CPD.
3. Online resources have been curated from international and national sources into an accessible, and easy to manage website page. This webpage will save practice nurses time in searching for appropriate resources.

Eligibility 

To be eligible for the study you must meet the following criteria:

As a practice nurse:

• Work in a general practice
• Be over 18 years of age

As a patient:

• Have a diagnosis of intellectual disability
• Be over 15 years of age

Participant benefits

Participants will receive gift cards for completing optional interviews

Register your interest

If you are interested in participating, phone 07 3163 2412, or email b2bhealth@mater.uq.edu.au. 

This study has been approved by The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee [Approval No.2024/HE000046].