Social Model vs Medical Model of Disability PDF

Social Model vs Medical Model of Disability Prepared by: Apolinaria D. Andres, PhD (Professor) A. Social model of disability The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organized, rather than by a perso...

Social Model vs Medical Model of Disability Prepared by: Apolinaria D. Andres, PhD (Professor) A. Social model of disability The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organized, rather than by a person’s impairment or difference. It looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people. When barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives. Disabled people developed the social model of disability because the traditional medical model did not explain their personal experience of disability or help to develop more inclusive ways of living. Changing attitudes to disabled people Barriers are not just physical. Attitudes found in society, based on prejudice or stereotype (also called disablism), also disable people from having equal opportunities to be part of society. Examples of Social model of disability: 1. A wheelchair user wants to get into a building with a step at the entrance. Under a social model solution, a ramp would be added to the entrance so that the wheelchair user is free to go into the building immediately. Using the medical model, there are very few solutions to help wheelchair users to climb stairs, which excludes them from many essential and leisure activities. 2. An adult with a learning difficulty wants to work towards living independently in his own home but is unsure how to pay the rent. Under the social model, people with this condition would be supported so that they are enabled to pay rent and live in their own home. Under a medical model, this adult might be expected to live in a communal home if not to live with his parents. 3. A child with a visual impairment wants to read a book to discuss it with his sighted friends. Under the medical model, there are very few solutions but a social model solution ensures full text audio- recordings are available when the book is first published. This means children with visual impairments can join in with cultural activities on an equal basis with everyone else. B. Medical model of disability The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organized. The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their impairments or differences. Under the medical model, these impairments or differences should be ‘fixed’ or changed by medical and other treatments, even when the impairment or difference does not cause pain or illness. The medical model looks at what is ‘wrong’ with the person and not what the person needs. It creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their own lives. The medical model describes disability as a consequence of a health condition, disease or caused by a trauma that can disrupt the functioning of a person in a physiological or cognitive way. This model is a conceptualization of disability as a condition a person has and focuses on the prevention, treatment or curing of the disabling condition. Other related models: 1. Functional Model – This model is similar to the medical model in that it conceptualizes disability as an impairment or deficit. Disability is caused by physical, medical or cognitive deficits. The disability itself limits a person’s functioning or the ability to perform functional activities. 2. Social Model – This model focuses on barriers facing people with disabilities instead of concentrating on impairments and deficits of the person with a disability. In this model a person’s 1|Page  activities are limited not by the impairment or condition but by environment and barriers are consequences of a lack of social organization. Example: Mark is 32 and is employed as a computer programmer at a manufacturing company. He was involved in a car accident at 21 years of age that resulted in a lower limb amputation. He uses a motorized scooter to get around locally, and drives an adapted van. He has a secondary health condition of Type 2 Diabetes. When visiting medical doctors, the care Mark receives is impacted by the way in which his disability is perceived. His Endocrinologist sees Mark’s physical disability as an illness or deficit that prevents him from living a healthy life (Medical Model of Disability) and does not recommend the same interventions that he would for a person without disabilities like a diet and exercise program. His primary care doctor does not have an accessible examination table or wide enough aisles for his scooter and views his difficulty getting on the examination table as a functional limitation (Functional Model of Disability) Mark faces as the result of the disability. His dietitian recommends a program of diet and exercise as an intervention for his diabetes, but his local gym is not accessible for people with mobility issues. This creates a barrier for him to exercise regularly (Social Model of Disability). The medical model breaks disability down into three key definition areas: 1. Impairment. This means the loss or abnormality in structure or function. The limitation of a person’s physical, mental or sensory function on a long-term basis. 2. Disability. This refers to the inability to perform an activity within the normal range of a human being because of said impairment. Example. Children who have physical, sensory or intellectual impairments can experience many difficulties in learning and participating in community life. A child may have lost a limb as the result of accident; have wasted legs following polio or been born with deformed limbs because of cerebral palsy. Often, they are called “disabled” in that they are unable to walk or to climb stairs. But more importantly, this disability often holds the child back in various ways. As the child cannot move around the house or neighborhood as other children do, then … opportunities to join in community life are also fewer – he cannot go as easily to market or family gatherings; the child may be ashamed of her body; have lack of confidence and try to avoid playing with other children. 3. Handicap. The inability to carry out normal social roles because of an impairment/disability. This model and associated terms are not popular with groups out with the medical profession, especially with the disabled themselves, as these definitions give the impression that disability is allied to ill health and it is the medical profession that hold the answers to solving the problems connected to disability. The social model specifically looks at the way in which the lives of disabled people are affected by the barriers that society imposes. It is strongly believed that if social and environmental barriers were removed, there would be a more realistic possibility of disabled people living a more equal and normal life alongside non-disabled people. This would create a significant reduction in the true effects and hardships of coping with a disability. The social model effectively emphasizes the social, economical and environmental restrictions rather than the physical or mental restrictions of the impairment. Unfortunately, it is discriminatory attitudes and ignorance that continue to cause the real problems in the lives of people living with impairments. 2|Page The causes of disabilities are many and varied, and affect people of all cultural and social backgrounds. Living and environmental conditions as well as financial circumstances will all affect how people are able to manage their disabilities. People with more money for instance, are able to pay for home adaptations, mobility products and additional care if it is required, whereas people on lower incomes are not able to do the same. Parents and teachers are not doctors – they cannot cure impairments. But they can reduce disabilities! Reducing Disabilities It is not the impairment that should concern teachers or how it was caused, but rather it is reducing the consequences that the impairment brings to the child’s life and the barriers that it presents to children’s learning. Example( To illustrate how social model reduces disabilities): Impairment Disabilities Medical Model Social Model Lost a limb as the unable to Doctors operate teach the person to walk using result of accident walk or to on the legs or crutches or sticks or wasted legs climb stairs special exercises get the person a wheelchair following polio or opportunities could be adapt the toilet so that the person can been born with to join in prescribed to move from a wheelchair on to it deformed limbs community make the legs make sure that his sibling/s and other because of cerebral life is limited work normally children play with the child palsy We cannot cure the impairment but we can change the environment for the child so that the effect of the impairment is less marked. Activity: Select an impairment other than the one given above. Identify the disability/ disabilities caused by the impairment and show how a child with such impairment may be treated using the medical and social models. Complete the table below for the answer. Impairment Disabilities Medical Model Social Model 3|Page