Inclusion of children with disabilities in routine general health care

Children with disabilities are three times more likely to be denied access to health services, four times more likely to be treated badly, 50% more likely to experience catastrophic health expenditures and at higher risk of injury than children without disabilities. Recognising that global health goals will not be achieved without greater focus on improving the access of children and young people with disabilities to routine general health care, UNICEF sought to build its capacity around ‘inclusive health’.

We worked with UNICEF’s Health Section in New York to help strengthen UNICEF’s focus on disabilty inclusion, including delivery of a Practice Guide on ‘inclusive health’ produced to help UNICEF drive improvements in the accessibility, acceptability, quality and inclusiveness of UNICEF-supported programmes focused on routine general health care.

The Practice Guide provides indicative ‘systems wide’ and ‘service specific’ measures that can be used to ensure health service sites and existing services are constructed or organised in a way that is inclusive of children and young people with disabilities (and their families); the Guide is intended to inspire action and demonstrate the breadth of activities that can be taken to strengthen disability inclusion in health.