Prior to the intervention of the Health Council, research showed that less than 10% of all medical schools provided specific teaching on disability.  Now all schools have been provided with information and advice on how to deal with disability issues in medical practice.

Cartoon from the booklet “One in Four of Us - The Experience of Disability.”

This user-friendly guide is freely available to all medical students in the UK.
A second booklet tailored to the specific issues that exist for people with learning difficulties is also available. 

The work of The Health Council has now been extended to consider the broader issues of health care services as they impact on the disabled individual.  It includes senior representatives from the country’s most august medical institutions and colleges as well as experts in the specialist fields of dentistry, psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and nursing.

Overall mission – To improve health care provision for people with disabilities

Raising awareness of key issues amongst health care professionals, important stakeholders, policy makers, and the public;

Changing the culture of medical education and practice away from the current obsession with cause and cure, to include an appropriate balance of interest and investment in the consequences of disease;

Facilitating an appropriate cohesion of medical and social models and other disability paradigms to develop a simple, pragmatic, effective approach to disability that will result in health gains for disabled people;

Provision of simple, authoritative educational opportunities and materials, aimed at changing attitudes and behaviour, as well as improving knowledge

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“Medical Education in Relation to Disability and Rehabilitation” – by Dr Stewart Munday and Peter Holland with contributions by members of The Health Council and a Forward by HRH The Prince of Wales.  Isbn 09530728 0 0

“Special or Different” – A user friendly guide for medical students

Teaching Health Professionals about Disability – a Workshop Report 2002