Children with developmental disabilities increasingly survive into adulthood, often with poor health outcomes. Canada invests huge resources in the childhood years, and now has a generation of adults (up to 1.3 million people) with childhood-onset disabilities. However, compared to their peers without disabilities, these people’s lives are impoverished in many ways. They experience ineffective transition to adult services, costly hospitalizations, inequity of health care services, and a possible lifelong economic burden to family and society.
Dr. Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD, FRCP(C) Director, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster and the Scotiabank Chair in Child Health Research, says this this transition process can be improved. In a CHEPA seminar on Weds. Oct. 15 entitled Let’s make transition better!, he’ll describe critical gaps in our understanding of the developmental trajectories of youth with disabilities, present ideas for how we could improve life-span health and transition to adulthood of young people with disabilities and describe ways to measure improved physical and mental health status for young people and their families.
The seminar will be held in CRL B119, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome. The seminar will be available remotely for those who are unable to attend.