I think that there are a lot of the ethical and legal issues in healthcare delivery that individuals with developmental disabilities deal with on a daily basis. There have been very important steps that have been taken towards providing these individuals with the services they need but there are still many barriers in the way. Many of the barriers that are seen very often for these individuals can include, a lack of formal training for healthcare providers, communication deficits between providers and patients, complex and unnecessarily complicated financing systems that limit access to appropriate care, and healthcare providers that lack awareness about steps they might take to ensure that patients with developmental disabilities have access to appropriate, culturally competent care (Ervin et al., 2014). Some of the effects of these barriers include higher mortality rate, more difficulties in cognitive functioning, financial burdens, challenges in mental and oral health services and many others. It is stated under the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities that individuals with disabilities have the right to “the same range, quality, and standard of free or affordable health care as provided to other persons, health services that are specific to their disabilities, health services as close as possible to people’s own communities, care of the same quality, and the provision of health insurance, and life insurance” (Ervin et al., 2014).
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