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ND Olmstead Plan Goal #9: Improve and expand access to healthcare. 

  1. Empower individuals with disabilities to participate in their healthcare needs.
    • Provide education on the right to access healthcare, including information on patient rights, access to interpreter, right to refuse, etc.
  2. Increase access to specialized equipment to meet the needs of individuals with various disabilities.
    • Utilize assistive and other technologies to increase independence.
  3. Expand mental and behavioral health services.
    • Develop and implement a communications framework to ensure awareness about 988 to the public and among underserved populations.
    • Develop a comprehensive suicide prevention plan focused on decreasing risk factors and increasing protective factors.
    • Evaluate and revise tools and practices to ensure individuals are appropriately assessed and receive treatment to meet their needs.
    • Identify underserved populations and create strategies for promoting health equity.
    • Support continued development of crisis services, to include crisis beds for children with mental health conditions.
  4. Recognize psychiatric diagnoses and substance use disorders as a disability, not a moral failure.
    • Create a movement toward seeking voluntary treatment.
    • Encourage the participation of individuals with lived experience in the design of services to meet their needs.
    • Increase the types of services available.
    • Support a system that allows existing agencies to coordinate their actions and work together.

 

Resources:

ND Health & Human Services