I am writing to you on behalf of Sexual Health and Family Planning with a request to assist us in circulating a survey to your Carers, Parents, Support Workers and/or Health Professionals regarding the currently available resources/information related to menopause for women with intellectual disabilities. It is very important that we engage the community, Carers, Health Professionals, Parents, Support Workers and anyone else who has a vested interest in the importance of women with intellectual disabilities having a clear and normalised understanding of the process of menopause in this project in order to achieve an effective outcome that actually meets their needs.
Background:
SHFPACT did some research to determine what resources regarding the process of menopause are currently available to women with intellectual disabilities in Australia. The findings were evident that there is nothing at all. Plenty of information was found on the process of menopause and "the change", however it was all targeted specifically at Women without a disability. In addition to this we looked at resources available to Carers, Parents, Support Workers and Health Professionals and again there was nothing, well nothing specific to menopause. With these findings we decided that it was critical that we develop something to support women with intellectual disabilities and applied for funding via the ACT Women's Grants program. We were successful in our bid and as a result have been funded to produce the below deliverables:
1. A literature review - A paper that details the current information depicting the process of menopause and how to navigate health services related to this process specific to women with disabilities in Australia, a summary of experiences from women with intellectual disabilities and the information they were given pre, peri and post-menopause. The result of this document will help form the evidence base for the educational resource and practice guide.
2. An Issues and Needs Paper - This will include the unique issues and needs for women with intellectual disabilities related to accessing health care information, identify factors that impede/promote women with intellectual disabilities accessing menopausal information and related health care services and details the Carers and Support Workers attitude towards women with intellectual disabilities and how that can promote or impeded adequate support towards the process.
3. An Educational Resource and Practice Guide - This will be developed based on the results of the surveys, structured interviews, consultations with health professionals whom specialise in Menopause and the information contained within the above deliverables.
Overall Outcome:
It is envisaged that the production of this resource and the accompanying practice guide will result in improving access for women with intellectual disabilities to information and education related to menopause and increase the utilisation of the health care services associated with the change. This will then further result in better health opportunities for women who utilise the resource.
It is with this information above, I ask that you consider being a part of this initiative as you can appreciate it has beneficial outcomes for all involved.
If you are willing and interested in participating or assisting us by circulating a small survey to your Carers, Support Workers, Health Professionals or Parents of women with intellectual disabilities, I ask that you respond with your interest and current contact details, specifically a valid email address and phone number. In addition to this, if you can think of any other organisations or stakeholders that you think would be interested, please forward this email on to them or alternatively respond to me with their contact details so I can contact them direct. For those of you who respond, I'm in the process of consolidating the survey into a survey tool and will endeavour to have this completed, inclusive of a small summary of what we are trying to achieve by around the middle of September. I will send this information to you so that it can be easily copied and pasted into your newsletters, articles, magazines or information that you currently give to your Carers, Supp!
ort Workers, Health Professionals and Parents.
Lastly, we would also like to complete some structured interviews with various pre, peri and post-menopausal Women with Intellectual Disabilities, so if you know of any women who you think would be interested in participating, please let me know and I'll have our Senior Disability Educator contact them to make arrangements for this to occur.
In advance, I appreciate your help and assistance and look forward to working with you, your organisation and associated stakeholders.
Please do not hesitate to contact me on 02 6247 3077 should you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
Lauren Cannell
Project Officer
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