Improving Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities Program

by: Iola Bonggay

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, otherwise referred to as CDC, is a federal government agency operating within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that is greatly responsible for protecting public health and safety through the provision of information to enhance health decisions and the promotion of health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations.

The grants and initiatives of the CDC are all geared towards the realization of its general agency mission which is to collaborate with other agencies "to create the expertise, information, and tools that people and communities need to protect their health – through health promotion, prevention of disease, injury and disability, and preparedness for new health threats."

In keeping with this mission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has constituted the Improving Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities Program in an attempt to financially support initiatives for people suffering from intellectual disabilities, thereby seeking to increase healthy behaviors and improve access to appropriate health services.

The program also intends to identify comorbid conditions and a number of poor healthy behaviors in people with intellectual disability (ID) to in order to somehow find a way to reduce or totally eliminate these behaviors and make way for better health practices.

Initially, the program is set to focus primarily on US populations but could also extend its activities internationally. By the end of the tenure of the grant, the recipient should have accomplished the following program objectives:

a) Provide health assessments, referral to services, and education to people with ID;

b) Provide health promotion training, information, and encouragement to people with ID and, when appropriate, their caregivers or service providers;

c) Train health care professionals to develop improved skills in their care of people with ID;

  (continued...)

Improving Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities Program
  Page 2

About The Author Iola Bonggay is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com one the the most comprehensive Websites offering information on government grants and federal government programs. She also maintains Websites providing resources on environmental grants and grants for youth programs.

Additional Resources

category - Health Grants

Child Health Research Career Development Award Program
In accordance with this mission, the National Institute of Health has collaborated with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in an attempt to establish the Child Health Research Career Development Award Program.

---

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program
The Office of Justice Programs has recently established the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program (JMHCP), wherein it seeks to increase public safety by encouraging collaboration between criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems.

---

National Science Foundation's Smart Health and Wellbeing Program
The National Science Foundation has constituted the development of the Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) Program wherein they intend to address scientific and technical issues that would pave the way towards the transformation of the healthcare process from being rather reactive and hospital centered into becoming preventive, proactive, evidence-based, patient-centered and focused on the wellbeing of the person rather than his/her disease.

---

Effects of Adolescent Binge Drinking on Brain Development
The National Institutes of Health, in close cooperation with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has established the Effects of Adolescent Binge Drinking on Brain Development Project.

---