Health and Access to Health Services for People with Disability in Australia: Data and Data Gaps.

The right of people with disability to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of disability is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Among its obligations as a signatory to the CRPD, Australia is required to collect appropriate information, including statistical and research data, to inform development and implementation of policies to give effect to the Convention. In this commentary, we first describe how the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) conceptual model of disability can be operationalised in statistical data collections, with a focus on how this is achieved in key Australian data sources such that people with disability can be identified as a population group.

Disability-Related Questions for Administrative Datasets.

High rates of unemployment among people with disability are long-standing and persistent problems worldwide. For public policy, estimates of prevalence and population profiles are required for designing support schemes such as Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme; for monitoring implementation of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and for monitoring service access, participation, and equity for people with disability in mainstream systems including employment. In the public sector, creating a succinct identifier for disability in administrative systems is a key challenge for public policy design and monitoring.

The ICF has made a difference to functioning and disability measurement and statistics.

Aims: Fifteen years after the publication of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), we investigated: How ICF applications align with ICF aims, contents and principles, and how the ICF has been used to improve measurement of functioning and related statistics.

Methods: In a scoping review, we investigated research published 2001-2015 relating to measurement and statistics for evidence of: a change in thinking; alignment of applications with ICF specifications and philosophy; and the emergence of new knowledge.

Results: The ICF is used in diverse applications, settings and countries, with processes largely aligned with the ICF and intended to improve measurement and statistics: new national surveys, information systems and ICF-based instruments; and international efforts to improve disability data.

Testing and development of an instrument for self-report of participation and related environmental factors - Your Ideas about Participation and Environment (YIPE) among adults with brain injury.

Purpose: To examine the usability of the self-report instrument, Your Ideas about Participation and Environment (YIPE), among adults with a brain injury by exploring the value and acceptability of the instrument.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive research design was used for the purpose of testing and developing the YIPE for use among adults with a brain injury. The study involved administering the YIPE followed by in-depth interviewing about the experience of taking the instrument with seven adults with a brain injury, recruited through a community-based support service organization.

In search of an integrative measure of functioning.

International trends towards people-centred, integrative care and support require any measurement of functioning and disability to meet multiple aims. The information requirements of two major Australian programs for disability and rehabilitation are outlined, and the findings of two searches for suitable measures of functioning and disability are analysed. Over 30 current measures of functioning were evaluated in each search.

The relevance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in monitoring and evaluating Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR).

Purpose: To examine the relevance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to CBR monitoring and evaluation by investigating the relationship between the ICF and information in published CBR monitoring and evaluation reports.

Method: A three-stage literature search and analysis method was employed. Studies were identified via online database searches for peer-reviewed journal articles, and hand-searching of CBR network resources, NGO websites and specific journals.

Counting disability: global and national estimation.

Purpose: How many people with disabilities are in the world? How is disability defined? How can we measure disability in an accurate and comparable way? These are some of the key questions which the recently published World Bank/WHO World Report on Disability (WRD) addresses.

Method: Multiple data sources and methods were used by WHO and the World Bank to estimate a global figure, with the ICF as the underlying data standard. Key international data sources were the World Health Survey of 2002-2004 and the 2004 updates from the Global Burden of Disease study.

How much does intellectual disability really cost? First estimates for Australia.

Background: Given the paucity of relevant data, this study estimates the cost of intellectual disability (ID) to families and the government in Australia.

Method: Family costs were collected via the Client Service Receipt Inventory, recording information relating to service use and personal expense as a consequence of ID. Government expenditure on the provision of support and services was estimated using top-down costing.