California's Living Healthy with a Disability Project, 2007-2012

The Living Healthy with a Disability implementation project builds on the strategic plan created in 2005, Universal Livability:  A Dream for Tomorrow, A Plan for Today, California 2005-10 (Word, 132 KB). In this capacity The Office on Disability and Health (ODH) serves as a statewide catalyst, using collaborative leadership to affect environmental and policy changes.

The Living Healthy with a Disability Project, under the auspices of the strategic plan, is charged to build capacity to: 1) sustain and enhance visibility of ODH; 2) strengthen university partnerships; 3) revise the Strategic Plan to meet the dynamic needs of the disability community; 4) guide policy and practice; 5) refine public health surveillance, and; 5) evaluate program effectiveness.  Activities will be done in concert with efforts of colleagues in other public health programs, sister state agencies, the Living Healthy Advisory Committee member organizations, as well as a number of public and private universities and other interested entities.

CDC funded the project specifically to: 1) work with the Living Healthy Advisory Committee to update the strategic plan to focus on priority issues; 2) work with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), Disability Statistics Center, to ensure that surveys include the participation of people with all types of disabilities as respondents; 3) increase state government web accessibility; 4) integrate a health risk appraisal into Medicaid and other managed care health plans, and; 5) work with local constituencies to influence land use and transportation decisions that enhance the ability of people with disabilities to move about more easily in their communities.

California was funded to implement a specialized program:  Training for Professionals and Paraprofessionals. This module addresses; 1) changing nursing practice by integrating a disability-focused curriculum into schools for nursing and other allied health professionals; 2) imbedding oral health care for people with disabilities into the nursing curriculum, and; 3) increasing the knowledge and comfort of oral health professionals in providing preventive treatment services for people with disabilities.

Over the next five years, California will take significant strides in fostering integration and full inclusion in public health programs for people with disabilities. ODH will work with partners at all levels to create the permanent infrastructure and sustainable funding streams that are critical in making universal livability a reality.