As a physician working in the East End of London, I am familiar
with medically under-served populations. Yet when I began
volunteering my time and my company's resources with Special
Olympics and its Healthy Athletes programme nearly a decade ago,
I was shocked and saddened by the extent of the lack of proper
healthcare seen among the athletes with learning disabilities.
Healthy Athletes offers athletes free health screenings as well
as free services like prescription eyewear, hearing aids, and
other health related products, services and education. As global
partner, Health One Global designed and manage what has become
the world's richest, largest database of health parameters of
people with a learning disability. At the most recent Special
Olympics World Games in Athens last summer, 3,751 athletes from
160 countries received free health screenings. Our findings were
shocking. Some 66% failed eye screening, 22% failed hearing
screening, 46% had untreated dental decay, 69% had gait
abnormalities, 20% needed a