American Public Health Association

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is a 2023-2024 and a 2024-2025 Systems Change in Inclusive Health Subgrant recipient

APHA will leverage their extensive reach into the public health professional and student community to increase awareness and advocacy of the health disparities faced by people with IDD. In their second year of funding, APHA plans to deepen the integration of people with IDD into their broader health equity work through an educational session at the APHA annual conference in October, a panel at National Public Health Week in November, and discussions at the Policy Action Institute in June. Further, they plan develop and disseminate resources on effective policies and practices for IDD inclusion, highlight the IDD community in APHA publications, and deepen their partnerships with the IDD community.

In their first year of funding, APHA brought awareness and understanding of the health disparities faced by people with IDD to their network of public health professionals. APHA created three resources/events to highlight people with IDD: they hosted a National Public Health Week webinar discuss strategies for including people with IDD in health equity work; they published an issue of the Nation’s Health newspaper on the unique health challenges of people with IDD; and then wrote an IDD primer of promising strategies for public health professionals.