My research project

Elisabeth Zeilinger investigates…

Department: Institute for Clinical and Health Psychology, Research Group: Intellectual Disabilities

Goal of the project: Project title: Equal access to health and healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities

Project team: Elisabeth Zeilinger, Sophie Komenda-Schned, Theresa Wagner, Paula Moritz, Sarah Jasmin Landskron, Amelie Fuchs, Alma Herscovici, Julia Lehner

In cooperation with Nicole Braunstein, Karin Riegler, Robert Saugspier and Josef Hochmeister, who act as an expert committee in their own account and support the research team on a regular basis.

Our research group is dedicated to the question of how equal healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) can be ensured.

Why is this important? Like everyone else, people with ID have a right to health and high quality health-care. Among other things, this is stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 25). At the same time, people with ID face numerous health-related barriers in their everyday lives that hinder health equity for this population.

Abstract:
Our research group is divided into three projects with different thematic foci and research questions:  

• Mental health of people with ID
• Cancer prevention for people with ID
• Quality of life for people with ID who have got high support needs
  

All three projects have in common that they want to generate a database for improving the health care situation of people with ID. To this end, we work closely with people with ID as experts on their own account, support persons from the living or working environment of people with ID and health experts. An essential part of our work is networking and exchanging ideas with our advisory group, which is made up of four people with ID. The advisory group acts as an expert committee in their own account and supports the mental health project.

Link to associated publications:

• Komenda-Schned, S., Landskron, S. J., Brunevskaya, N., Moritz, P., Santambrogio, J., Salvador-Carulla, L., Lueger-Schuster, B., Zeilinger, E. L. [submitted]. Good Mental Health and Wellbeing in People with Intellectual Disabilities: a Systematic Review. Health Psychology Review. 
• Moritz, P., Komenda-Schned, S., Hillenkamp, L., Landskron, S. J., Zeilinger, E.L. [submitted]. Psychische Gesundheit bei Menschen mit intellektuellen Beeinträchtigungen. Einblicke in ein partizipatives Forschungsprojekt. Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie.
• Wagner, T., Zeilinger, E. L. (2023). Inklusive Krebsprävention. Krebsvorsorge bei Menschen mit intellektueller Beeinträchtigung. Zeitschrift Menschen, 6, 39 - 46.
• Komenda-Schned, S., Brunevskaya, N., Moritz, P., Landskron, S. J., Zrnic Novakovic, I., Oberleiter, S., Wurzer, J., Lueger-Schuster, B., Salvador-Carulla, L., Zeilinger, E. L. (2023). Concepts of good mental health and wellbeing in people with intellectual disability: Study protocol for a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 14 [1148702]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1148702
• Zeilinger, E. L., Zrnic Novakovic, I., Komenda, S., Franken, F., Sobisch, M., Mayer, A.-M., Neumann, L. C., Loosli, S. V., Hoare, S., & Pietschnig, J. (2022). Informant-based assessment instruments for dementia in people with intellectual disability: A systematic review and standardised evaluation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 121, 104148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104148

Project-Homepage: https://klinische-gesundheit-psy.univie.ac.at/forschung/arbeitsbereiche-und-arbeitsgruppen/intellektuelle-beeintraechtigungen/ 

Explanation – easy to understand:

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have limited access to healthcare,
compared to people without disabilities. 

In our research group, we are investigating
what equal access to healthcare could look like for this group of people.

To do this, we work closely with people with ID, caregivers and health experts.

People with ID, who act as experts on their own account,
are part of our research group.