Healthcare disparities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) are grave. Access continues to be a huge concern especially for adults who need qualified doctors to provide primary and specialty care. Operation House Call (OHC), a program of The Arc of Massachusetts, is addressing this policy priority in a hands-on way. OHC has been successfully providing training to thousands of medical students and other health professionals through a best practices model that is now available to chapters of The Arc.

Operation House Call flips the script to make families and individuals with I/DD the instructors teaching young medical professionals essential skills to enhance the health care of individuals with I/DD. This unique opportunity provides sensitivity training and disability competence to help build medical professionals confidence in working with individuals with I/DD. The program provides a lecture, taught by a volunteer parent professional, and an experiential learning opportunity – through a two-hour home visit to a family who has a child with an I/DD (hence house call) and written self-reflection essays.

For $200, the Operation House Call toolkit includes: step-by-step instructions to help disability organizations partner with a medical school and implement the program in their area; sample templates; sample program budget; staffing plan and evaluation forms for families and medical students.