Dear Healthcare Professional,

My name is Tia Henderson, and I am a passionate advocate for accessible, equitable healthcare for people with disabilities. To combat the health disparities present in this population, I founded Solution to Health Inclusion; an initiative dedicated to advocacy and improving the overall health of people with disabilities through physical activity, education, and healthcare. According to Special Olympics, over 80% of healthcare providers are not professionally trained to treat people with intellectual disabilities. Through my partnership with the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program, I work to encourage healthcare professionals like yourself to become properly trained to treat this population of people.

I am a honors graduate of San Diego State University with my Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Pre-Physical Therapy and aim to obtain my Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree and specialization in Pediatrics. I am committed to being an inclusive physical therapist in the future and working with children with disabilities at my own practice. With this career goal in mind, I completed the free, online Special Olympics Health Professional Training myself, and urge you to do the same. While the vast majority of healthcare professionals are untrained and uneducated in inclusive healthcare, you can help reduce that statistic in as little as 1 hour. 

Why is this important?

According to the Special Olympics Center for Inclusive Health, people with intellectual disabilities are 5 times more likely to have diabetes, twice as likely to be obese, and twice as likely to die before the age of 50 compared to people without intellectual disabilities. Additionally, they face many unique challenges with accessibility, communication, and comfortability. If every healthcare provider had basic training on how to work with people with disabilities, we could remove much of the fear and avoidance many people experience and create a healthier overall population of people. Healthcare intervention is a required piece of overall health, and it starts with this training. 

Please take an hour of your time to click the link on this page, and change healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities. For healthcare providers, I recommend the Special Olympics Health and Introduction to Intellectual Disabilities modules or the General Health Volunteer module for a condensed version of both. For fitness professionals, the Inclusive Fitness Online Training module is perfect for you! However, I encourage you to explore all of the modules and reach out to me with feedback, comments on what you have learned or gained, and to discuss your role as an inclusive healthcare provider! 

Thank you for being part of the Special Olympics' Healthy Athletes program and supporting my personal initiative, Solution to Health Inclusion. 

Sincerely,

Tia Henderson