Secondary analysis of primary and preventive services accessed and perceived service barriers by children with developmental disabilities and their families.

Children and youths with developmental disabilities (DD) have needs for more community-based services to address ongoing health, educational, employment, housing, transportation, and recreational concerns. Secondary data analysis was conducted to examine the array of services accessed and service obstacles to primary, preventive and special health care services of 102 children and youths with developmental disabilities. The two services most frequently reported as being used by families were SSI (29.4%) and MediCal (California's Medicaid program) (27.8%). Speech therapy was the most frequently identified support service accessed by respondents (51%). Respondents identified a number of unaddressed concerns and perceived barriers to having these concerns addressed as it related to service referrals for speech therapy, nutrition services, dental services, and behavior management services.