Teaching Note-Integrating Disability-Related Content Within the Interprofessional Education Curriculum: Opportunities and Lessons Learned

Healthy People 2020 recommends the expansion of training opportunities for health and behavioral health practitioners to increase their awareness of the social determinants of health and improve health equity for people with disabilities. Yet many professional degree programs, including social work, face significant challenges integrating this content in their curriculum. Interprofessional education (IPE) provides a unique opportunity to support workforce development in this priority area. This note will describe case study learning activities used during large-scale IPE events. Lessons learned will be shared, including how social work educators wishing to integrate disability-related content within their IPE curriculum can provide scaffolding for learning activities that encourage students from diverse disciplines to consider social models and disability justice frameworks in their practice.