University Essay: Community Services for People with Disabilities

This essay, written for an Introduction to Community Services course (INT101), examines the significance of community services, emphasizing their role in fostering a better society. It delves into the values and principles underpinning these services, highlighting their importance in cultivating social responsibility, building connections, and promoting critical thinking. The essay focuses on the challenges faced by people with disabilities, who are often at risk of social exclusion. It explores the historical treatment of disabled individuals, the impact of social exclusion, and the importance of social inclusion. The essay also discusses the ethical and legislative requirements relevant to community services for people with disabilities, referencing international strategies and organizations like the National Disability Strategy and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The conclusion emphasizes the ongoing efforts to ensure equal opportunities and social inclusion for this vulnerable group.

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY SERVICES
INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY SERVICES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY SERVICES
Introduction
The country we live in will be good only if we put effort to make it a good place for
everyone in the society. Community service is therefore necessary in order to make our country
worth living (Gordon, 2016). Services within the community refer to the voluntary works that
people within the communities intend to do for benefit of the community and the society as a
whole. It is a non-paid form of providing service by any individual or a group of people. These
activities are performed for a number of reasons and are active part of schools and colleges. This
assignment highlights on such services, its values and principles. It also highlights on one social
issue and the services related to the same in the field of community services.
Discussion
Community services programmes help in creating a number of problem skills that help in
dealing with a number of problems easily. It helps in developing a richer perspective of the
world where people live in, helps in acquiring leadership skills, helps in understanding human
behaviour and acting promptly. According to Gordon Hinckle, the one who serves for the
community is benefitted more than the one who is being served. The values and importance of
providing services to the society are profound in nature. It helps in developing a sense of social
responsibility among all the people within the community, it helps in building social connections
and exposes people to diversified culture, helps in better communication and increases the
critical thinking ability. A number of core values and ethics are attached with these services. The
workers involved in these services stand up for human rights and human justice. They act as the
voice of those individuals, who are unheard. They try to make the life of every individual better
and while doing so they end up making the society as a whole better. The community service

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workers maintain their service ethics and work for social justice, person’s worth and dignity,
strengthening human relationships, increasing integrity and competence. One practical example
that has been highlighted in the following paragraphs is related to people with disabilities
(Morelli, 2015).
“People with disabilities are undoubtedly among the most vulnerable at risk of social
exclusion” – in order to argue on this issue, it is important for us to understand social inclusion
and exclusion. In almost every country there are certain groups that are unable to take part in the
political, social and economical life of the nation. These groups are not only excluded through
legal structures but are also excluded on the basis of thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, health, gender,
occupation, status, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age, caste, religion and so on. This
kind of exclusion affects the mental state of the individuals and groups. It reduces their self-
respect, dignity, and opportunities to live a better life. Social exclusion is therefore a form of
discrimination resulting to partial or whole exclusion of people from participating in the social,
economic and political activities of the community (Jolley et al., 2018). It is a process that
involves social categories that is culturally defined and is associated with cultural perceptions
and it also affects the rights and entitlement of the human beings. It is a pain in the society and
hence social inclusion comes into the picture. Social inclusion is refers to the process whereby an
individual is identified as a part of the society. It refers to improving the basis on which the
individuals and groups in the society take part in social activities. This helps in improvement of
abilities and opportunities of those who are unprivileged and disadvantaged in taking part in the
society. Social inclusion is considered as an important determinant of health. It helps in creating
a sense of belongingness, allows active participation of everyone within the society, creating
valued roles within the community. Without social inclusion people will experience a poor

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mental health, will feel lonely and will have the senses of isolation and poor self-esteem. There
are many people with disabilities who experience your life quite differently. People with
disability do not have scenes of presence within the community in most of the cases. They are
undoubtedly among the most vulnerable at risk of social exclusion. These people experience
justiciable problems, which have potential effect on their lives. The living conditions for the
disabled people have become worse because of displacement. The disabled people in the society
lack the opportunity to mix with everyone in the society and do not have access to those things in
the society that they prefer. They lack the opportunity to interact with the others, learn and
develop with the others and thereafter lack the scope of developing a proper social relationship.
People with disabilities are not acknowledged by many people in the society and see them in a
negative way.
The attitudes shown towards the persons with disabilities are mostly unhealthy and
deviant in nature. Negative social attitudes shown towards the people with disabilities can be
seen documented in most of the literatures. Attitude towards the people is formed of three
distinct components – Affective, Cognitive and Behavioural components. These components
help in understanding what an individual feels, thinks and does. Society has always treated these
individuals and groups as an object of pity and fear. It is a common thinking of all the natural
groups in the community that these disabled people must always rely on welfare organizations.
Most of the people who have cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, mental retardation or epilepsy reside
at home and do not even come out and communicate with a single individual. The other
individuals perceive them as an object of fun and treat them as alien. Their family therefore
generally cares them. Talking about family, it is not all the members in the family that take
active participation in caring for them. It is just the mother, father and immediate brothers and

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sisters who care about these individuals. The other family members also treat them as alien in
most of the cases. Most of the people look upon as these people as a group of underprivileged
human beings that can harm the social organization. The poor and the disabled have undergone a
series of experiments and are still part of several experiments in the modern society. They
became the subject of administration in relation to the Public Order in the fifteenth and the
sixteenth century. They became a problem subject in the 19th century and psychologists and
scientists started to experiment on them for progressing in the fields of psychology, education
and medicine. Half of the disabled people do not receive proper medical care and health care and
neither can they afford the same. Children with disabilities are less likely to attend schools than
the normal children, as they become a part of bullies and harassments. They are also vulnerable
to poverty, as they are not provided with jobs and other social opportunities. They in fact do not
have proper access to water and sanitation and instead have much more medicinal expenditure.
Most of the countries do not have a proper rehabilitation services. Most of the people with
disability get mentally hurt everyday just because of the way people look at them on the streets.
They feel that everyone is watching them as they are different and not like normal people. They
start feeling guilty about the way they are born.
Disability in human being refers to any condition that restricts the sensory, mobility or
mental function. If the statistics of Australia is analysed, it can be seen that more that 4millions
of people are having some form of disability. Almost 18% of the females and 17.5% of the males
of the Australian population suffer from disabilities of some form. 35.9% of around 9 million
households in Australia have a person with disability in their family. Only 4.4% of the disabled
people in Australia use wheel chairs, rest of the people suffer from mental health mostly. 45% of
the people in Australia, who are between the age group of 16-85 years, suffer from health

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conditions during their lifetime and around 3 million of people in Australia suffer from
depression and anxiety. The disability conditions have undergone a lot of social stigma and
needs improvement. A number of social programmes and events are now taking place for
including these individuals within the society and treating them normally. Several reforms have
been made in both Australia and worldwide, which will be highlighted in the following
paragraphs.
Social inclusion for these people with disability is addressed by opening several schools
and institutions or workplaces for these special people. If these segments of people are treated as
especially able people than disabled people, they can improve mentally and feel the sense of
belongingness in the society. Recreation is one of the best ways of achieving social inclusion of
the disabled people as it can facilitate meaningful connections. Recently state, territories and
local governments of all countries are working together for socially including this people and are
providing various social opportunities for them. They are helping them in maximizing their
potentiality to participate as an equal citizen within the society. Australia has implemented the
National Disability Strategy, which is an agreement that guides policy across the Australian
state, territories and local governments from the year 2010-2020. This strategy was the first
strategy in the history of Australia that made a unified approach in improving the lives of the
disabled people and their families. The strategy has six unique action priorities-
i. Inclusive and accessible communities
ii. Protection of rights and providing justice
iii. Economic security
iv. Support from the community as well as personal support
v. Improvement of learning and skills

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vi. Health and wellbeing (Rummery, 2017)
Several rights and policies regarding this disability have emerged in the society.
International Disability Rights is one of them. This organisation conducts several meetings,
workshops, consultations and trainings worldwide for the improvement of the disabled people.
They develop strategies for social change in their countries and localities. United Nations
Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities is another such right on disability. It aims
in protecting the rights and increasing the dignity of the disabled in the society. Some of the
famous disability rights movement organization that can be recognized are Disability Rights
Education and Defence Fund, International Disability Alliance, Disabled Peoples’ International,
Disability Right Advocates, ADAPT and many more (Spear, Defourny & Laville, 2018).
Programs and sessions are being conducted worldwide for changing peoples’ perception towards
disability and now most of the people are looking into the matter in a different perspective.
People are trying to make them a part of the society and have started to accept them.
Employment opportunities and several entertainment programs are arranged specially for these
people.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that community service is an effective
program that helps in addressing a number of social problems. Over the years people with
disability have been socially unaccepted. They were looked at differently. But with the evolution
of medicines, education and technology, social inclusion has become a part for all the
community. Several organizations and individuals are conducting sessions and workshop in

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order to socially include the people with disabilities and also provide them the opportunity to live
like an equal citizen in the society.

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References:
Gordon, J. S. (2016). Helping survivors of domestic violence: The effectiveness of medical,
mental health, and community services. Routledge.
Jolley, E., Lynch, P., Virendrakumar, B., Rowe, S., & Schmidt, E. (2018). Education and social
inclusion of people with disabilities in five countries in West Africa: a literature
review. Disability and rehabilitation, 40(22), 2704-2712.
Morelli, N. (2015). Challenges in designing and scaling up community services. The Design
Journal, 18(2), 269-290.
Rummery, K. (2017). Disability, Citizenship and Community Care: A Case for Welfare Rights?:
A Case for Welfare Rights?. Routledge.
Spear, R., Defourny, J., & Laville, J. L. (Eds.). (2018). Tackling social exclusion in Europe: The
contribution of the social economy. Routledge.