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Vital Signs

First-Ever Guide to Care of Women with Disabilities Published

People with disabilities are a minority population that is often overlooked when it comes to leveling the health care playing field to ensure that all Americans receive the same quality of care. Yet just like persons who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, this population has its own unique health issues and challenges that care providers must be able to address with knowledge and sensitivity.

In particular, almost 30 million women in the U.S. have disabilities, according to the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, but very little information has been available to guide health professionals in providing these patients with competent care. Now, however, a new book has been published to fill this knowledge gap. Welner’s Guide to the Care of Women with Disabilities, by Sandra L. Welner, MD, and Florence Haseltine, MD, PhD, is designed to help physicians, nurses and other care providers address the challenges faced by women with disabilities who seek routine medical care.

Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, the 352-page book offers practical advice on issues such as physical examination, nutrition, exercise, sexuality, victimization and access to care, as well as information on specific disabilities, such as blindness, deafness and neurological impairment. It also sheds light on medical problems that warrant special consideration in these patients, including pain, osteoporosis, incontinence, infertility, depression and substance abuse. Of particular interest to nurses, the book includes templates for patient education handouts that can be reproduced and customized for specific patient needs.

The late Dr. Sandra Welner, the guide’s primary author, was a true expert on the needs of this patient population: She became disabled by a debilitating stroke while in medical school. Dedicating her career to improving care for other women with disabilities, she opened and directed the first primary care program for women with disabilities at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. After Welner’s death from an accident in 2001, Dr. Haseltine, who is the founder of the Society for Women’s Health Research, helped finish the book. Persons who order the book through the society’s Web site, www.womens-health.org, will receive a 10% discount.