Supporting people with hidden disabilities’ engagement with healthcare services.
Tracks
Carers (Disability)
Carers (Older Persons)
Children and families (Paediatrics)
Diversity and inclusion (General)
Evidence-based practice (Knowledge Translation)
Functional independence (Disability)
Implementation science (Knowledge Translation)
Knowledge exchange, mobilisation, and transfer (Knowledge Translation)
Mental health and wellbeing (General)
Occupational justice, human rights, equity, and social inclusion (General)
Partnering with consumers in practice and research (e.g., translational research, consumer co-design) (Knowledge Translation)
Quality improvement projects, including student-driven programs (Knowledge Translation)
Working in dynamic settings (Knowledge Translation)
| Wednesday, June 24, 2026 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:35 AM |
| Mezzanine M1&2 |
Speaker
Mrs Roseanne Holliday
Health Consumer Representative
Retired OT / Disability Advocate
Supporting people with hidden disabilities’ engagement with healthcare services.
Presentation summary
Background:
More than 80% of people with disabilities have non-visible hidden disabilities, experience poorer health outcomes and higher risk of potentially avoidable early death. Time pressures and sensory environments in healthcare settings can heighten vulnerability and increase challenges experienced by people with hidden disabilities (PWHD) and/or their carers. Increasingly, PWHD use the sunflower symbol as a discreet way to indicate their need for understanding, flexibility, or additional support.
Implementation:
Using collaborative approaches to address the health inequities of PWHD, a major health service sought to drive attitudinal change and improve healthcare accessibility through adoption of the sunflower symbol. Multidisciplinary groups, co-led by occupational therapists, other health staff and consumers with lived experience of non-visible hidden disability and caring roles, guided co-design of a sunflower initiative across clinical and non-clinical areas. Awareness campaigns, targeted training, and lived-experience narratives were central to implementation and evaluation processes.
Discussion:
Key challenges included launching and sustaining engagement, ensuring confidentiality, psychological safety, and embedding consistent responses to support healthcare staff and consumers with hidden disabilities. Collaboration with interstate health services enabled use of a trial evaluation protocol to collect feedback from health consumers and staff. Results identified increased confidence to disclose non-visible disabilities and improved hidden disability awareness and understanding within healthcare services and environments.
Conclusion:
Occupational Therapists’ advocacy and co-design leadership in health services’ quality improvement activities with implementation of small symbolic initiatives, can help drive systemic culture change, encourage equitable healthcare accessibility, service delivery and workforce participation for people with non-visible hidden disabilities.
More than 80% of people with disabilities have non-visible hidden disabilities, experience poorer health outcomes and higher risk of potentially avoidable early death. Time pressures and sensory environments in healthcare settings can heighten vulnerability and increase challenges experienced by people with hidden disabilities (PWHD) and/or their carers. Increasingly, PWHD use the sunflower symbol as a discreet way to indicate their need for understanding, flexibility, or additional support.
Implementation:
Using collaborative approaches to address the health inequities of PWHD, a major health service sought to drive attitudinal change and improve healthcare accessibility through adoption of the sunflower symbol. Multidisciplinary groups, co-led by occupational therapists, other health staff and consumers with lived experience of non-visible hidden disability and caring roles, guided co-design of a sunflower initiative across clinical and non-clinical areas. Awareness campaigns, targeted training, and lived-experience narratives were central to implementation and evaluation processes.
Discussion:
Key challenges included launching and sustaining engagement, ensuring confidentiality, psychological safety, and embedding consistent responses to support healthcare staff and consumers with hidden disabilities. Collaboration with interstate health services enabled use of a trial evaluation protocol to collect feedback from health consumers and staff. Results identified increased confidence to disclose non-visible disabilities and improved hidden disability awareness and understanding within healthcare services and environments.
Conclusion:
Occupational Therapists’ advocacy and co-design leadership in health services’ quality improvement activities with implementation of small symbolic initiatives, can help drive systemic culture change, encourage equitable healthcare accessibility, service delivery and workforce participation for people with non-visible hidden disabilities.
Biography
From Metro North Health, Shannon Dawson is the Disability Program Director of Metro North Allied Health, Ansuyah Padayachee is the Allied Health Director for Caboolture. Kilcoy, Woodford Directorate and Roseanne Holliday is a retired Occupational Therapist and Consumer Representative on the Metro North Disability Services Action Plan Implementation Advisory Group.
