Guaranteeing Safety for the Vulnerable, Grooming the Next Generation

Guaranteeing Safety for the Vulnerable, Grooming the Next Generation

The University of Rochester, one of only eight institutions with the "trifecta" of NIH awards related to intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), took on a $4 million project to understand how COVID-19 was spreading in the IDD population. The project, funded by the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program, was a crucial response to the heightened COVID-19 risks faced by students with IDD.

In April 2020, the University of Rochester received a new designation from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), becoming one of about a dozen Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers (IDDRC) in the country. This designation marked the university's commitment to supporting the IDD community, particularly during the pandemic.

John Foxe, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, emphasised the importance of intensive sensory interaction, intervention, and socialization for students with IDD to be in school. Recognising the increased health risks for these students, the university and its partner, the Mary Cariola Center, focused their efforts on tailored strategies to mitigate COVID-19 risks.

Testing was a crucial part of the study, with the University of Rochester-IDDRC and Mary Cariola Center partnership allowing for onsite and mobile testing in schools. This reduced the burden on staff and students, making testing more accessible and less stressful for the students. The study also collected antibody levels within the community to help keep the virus at bay.

The regular meetings enabled the team to respond quickly and adjust to the fluidity of studying an evolving virus within a school. The data collected by this study could change how organisations respond to airborne viruses in settings that support the IDD community in the future.

Karen Zandi, president and CEO of the Mary Cariola Center, saw the partnership as a necessary opportunity to offer testing onsite and reduce the stress for families about where and who was administering the test. The shared mission of both the medical center and the Mary Cariola Center was to keep the students safe.

While the specific strategies and findings directly linked to this project are not explicitly detailed in the provided search results, a plausible inference based on University of Rochester's broader health initiatives and the CDC's COVID-19 risk classification is that the project involved frequent and accessible COVID-19 testing tailored to students with IDD, safety protocols adapted to meet the communication and behavioural needs of these students, and collaboration among health professionals, educators, and families to monitor and reduce transmission risks.

The journal of Disability and Health reported that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for individuals with IDD in 2020, underscoring the importance of targeted COVID-19 testing and safety protocols for students with IDD. The University of Rochester's COVID-19 testing project aimed at keeping students with IDD safe during the pandemic, although explicit published details about specific strategies or outcomes of their testing project for this group are not available in the current search results. Further direct sources from the university or affiliated research publications would be necessary for more comprehensive, detailed information.

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