Dr. Matthew Ramsey welcomes Dr. Craig Escudé, President of IntellectAbility and host of the IDD Health Matters podcast, for a thoughtful discussion about healthcare for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Drawing from decades of experience as a family physician and advocate, Dr. Escudé shares how a single patient encounter changed the course of his career and led him to champion better healthcare training for clinicians nationwide.

Together, they explore health disparities, diagnostic overshadowing, rural healthcare access, lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing movement to ensure healthcare professionals are prepared to meet the needs of all people. At its core, this conversation is a reminder that every person deserves to be seen first as a person—and that better understanding leads to better care, better outcomes, and stronger communities.

On Target Mini: Building Skills, Confidence, and Careers

In this episode of On Target Mini, Dr. Matthew Ramsey sits down with Chip Gachot, Instructor of the Trades Exploration Class, to talk about how hands-on learning helps young adults with disabilities build real skills, confidence, and pathways to meaningful work.

Chip shares how a career in the trades led him into teaching, and why practical, hands-on experiences—like working with tools, building projects, and learning workplace safety—create powerful opportunities for growth. His students don’t just learn skills. They build independence, confidence, and pride in what they can do.

This conversation explores the impact of real-world training, supportive employers, and community connections. Chip explains why the trades are a strong fit for many young adults, how businesses benefit from motivated and capable workers, and why access to opportunity can change lives.

If you care about inclusion, workforce development, and helping people with disabilities build meaningful futures, this episode offers insight, inspiration, and a reminder that with the right opportunity, people can thrive.

For decades, people with disabilities were told where they would live — often in large, isolated institutions far removed from community life. It was considered efficient. Practical. Necessary.

But history tells a different story.

In this episode of The On Target Podcast, Adam Stultz and Dr. Matthew Ramsey explore the rise and fall of institutional care, the movement toward community-based living, and why the right to live in the community remains one of the most important civil rights victories of our time.

As conversations about cost-cutting and “efficiency” resurface in policy debates, this episode asks a critical question: Have we forgotten what happens when people are separated from their neighborhoods, their opportunities, and their independence?

From the history of deinstitutionalization to the real-life impact of person-centered residential services, this conversation makes one thing clear:

Where you live shapes how you live.

And protecting community-based care isn’t just about disability services — it’s about dignity, inclusion, and the kind of society we choose to build.

🎙️ Listen now and join the conversation about why community isn’t a luxury — it’s a right.