Healthy Hearts: A Pilot Program for Individuals with Mild and Moderate Developmental Disabilities

This poster is a description of the development of a population health program.  The program described is a healthy living pilot program for individuals with mild and moderate disabilities.  The utilization of a collaborative nursing approach enabled the identification of the problem of overweight and obesity in residents of mild and moderate developmental disability at Misericordia, a developmental disability community on the northside of Chicago.

Individuals with such disabilities have the same health needs as those without developmental disabilities, and they also may experience a narrower margin of health, because of poverty, social exclusion, and secondary conditions (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013.  Misericordia was selected as a population for this case study due to the critical need for equality in health care services for people with developmental disabilities, particularly in primary care, health promotion, and disease prevention (Marks, Sisirak, & Heller, 2010). 

The conceptual and planning frameworks used, Community as Partner (CaP), Stage Theory of Organizational Change, and The Logic Model provided guidance and purpose for the development of the population health program and drove the formation of the healthy living pilot program, Healthy Hearts.  The Misericordia community partnered with the author in the population health program’s creation, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination.  The outcomes, recommendations and lessons learned from Healthy Hearts will move Misericordia forward in institutional change to promote healthy living among the residents.  The application of a collaborative nursing approach to a DD population brings enormous capability to promote population health for all professionals and communities.