The Australian Medical research fund has approved the following research projects to improve the health of people with intellectual disability. Many of these grants include people with a lived experience of intellectual disability to learn more about how to do things better. We are pleased to see so many ASID members among the researchers.

• Does cannabidiol reduce severe behavioural problems in youth with intellectual disability? A randomised placebo-controlled trial. Led by Associate Professor Daryl Efron Medical Research Institute, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Victoria
• Significance of low-level mosaicism to intellectual disability in paediatric disorders. Led by Dr David Godler Efron Medical Research Institute, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Victoria
• Inclusive health communication in specialist disability accommodation. Led by Dr Kate Anderson, Deakin University, Victoria.
• Achieving good oral health for young people with intellectual disability is everyone’s task. Led by Professor Loc Do, University of Queensland, Queensland
• Australia’s first co-created workforce model to advance preventive oral healthcare for people with intellectual disability. Led by Professor Nathan Wilson, University of Western Sydney, NSW
• Enhancing access to healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities: A multi-tiered sedation model. Led by Dr Jessica Smith, Flinders university, SA.
• Co-designing and evaluating a cross-sector physical activity navigator program for adults with intellectual disability. Led by Associate Professor Leanne Hassett, University of Sydney, NSW.
• Profound Pathways: Improving health care transition and decision-making for young adults with severe and profound intellectual disabilities. Led by Dr Michelle King, University of Queensland, QLD
• Reducing health inequities for older people with intellectual disability in rural Australia. Led by Professor Stuart Wark, University of New England, NSW
• Patient-led identification of unmet health and psychosocial needs by people with intellectual disability. Led by Professor Reema Harrison, Macquarie University, NSW.
• Know Me, Support Me: AI reasoning tool for identifying and managing health issues of people with intellectual disability. Led by Associate Professor Margo Barr, University of New South Wales, NSW.
• Building reasonable adjustments, inclusion, and dignity in emergency care for people with intellectual disabilities (BRIDGE-ED). Led by Professor Biswadev Mitra from Monash University, Victoria.
• Cascade testing in intellectual disability: social and economic impact. Led by researchers from Macquarie University, NSW
• Face match: Harnessing frontier technologies in facial recognition to transform genetic diagnosis of children with moderate to severe intellectual disability. Led by Professor Brian Lovell from the University of Newcastle, NSW
• Pioneering co-created patient-reported experience measures for people with intellectual disability to improve health outcomes. Led by Associate Professor Reema Harrison, Macquarie University, NSW.
• Co-producing cancer survivorship resources with and for people with intellectual disability. Led by Associate Professor Michelle Bellon, Flinders university, SA.
• My Health Care Choices My Way. Led by Professor Iva Strnadova University of New South Wales.

Here are the brief plain English summaries of the research.

On November 28th, 2024 ASID NSW held a one day conference in Sydney. The papers were from 2 special editions about the Disability Royal Commission and people with intellectual disabilities. The papers are published in Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (RAPIDD).

Here are the plain English summaries of the 6 papers given at the conference.

Here are the plain English summaries of the 23 RAPIDD plain English summaries.

For 2023 ASID chose to write about 3 themes  from the research.  The research comes from ASID’s 2 journals. The journals are Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (JIDD) and Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (RAPIDD).

The themes are communication, access and quality services.  Each theme has 3 research articles.  

 Click on the link below to read the summaries

• communication 
• access 
• quality services 

In 2022 ASID employed a journalist to write plain English summaries of research about employment.  You gave us some feedback. Click here to read them.