Understanding Disability in Health and Social Care

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1
LO1.......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1............................................................................................................................ 2
1.2............................................................................................................................ 3
1.3............................................................................................................................ 5
LO2.......................................................................................................................... 6
2.1............................................................................................................................ 6
2.2............................................................................................................................ 7
2.3............................................................................................................................ 9
LO3.......................................................................................................................... 9
3.1............................................................................................................................ 9
3.2.......................................................................................................................... 10
3.3.......................................................................................................................... 12
LO4........................................................................................................................ 13
4.1.......................................................................................................................... 13
4.2.......................................................................................................................... 15
4.3.......................................................................................................................... 16
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................19
1

INTRODUCTION
Needs or requirement of an individual are explained by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
theory as the requirements for living and spending life appropriately. Specific needs
of an individual are defined as the requirements that are individualized and not
generalized in nature. Some of the individual may present requirements that are only
specific to them and not to all of the human beings. It may be due to health
conditions or other physical or mental impairments that they require specific facilities
or services to address their needs. This assignment focuses on discussion of the
perceptions of health, disability, illness and behavior of health. It discusses how
current health and social care services helps in supporting the individual by
presenting different services addressing their specific needs. The interventions and
approaches used by the health and social care organizations and sector to be able
to address the requirements of the individual’s with specific need will also be
discussed in detail. There are several behavioral and associated barriers and
challenges while caring for and providing services to the individuals with specific
needs, these challenges are identified discussed and the strategies to overcome
these cultural and behavioral challenges are highlighted. This assignment chiefly
focuses on the explanation of the importance of understanding specific needs of an
individual in health and social care and different aspects of care to be considered
while caring for the individual with specific needs.
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LO1
1.1
According to WHO health is defined as complete state of physical, mental, social
wellbeing and is not justified merely by absence of disease or illness (World Health
Organization., 2006). Health is the state of complete wellbeing as the wellbeing in
today’s era is considered as not merely physical health but parity with mental, social
and psychosocial health of the individual. Illness on other hand is defined as
individual perception of the disease and its social implication on the individual. Illness
is not only defined as physical outcome of the disease but it is also collectively
measured by physical, social and mental implication of the disease (World Health
Organization., 2006). Disease is referred to as biological malfunction of the
physiology of the human body (Vakil., 2010).
Different theories describe illness and behavior accordingly to explain its effect on
health of the individual (Campbell., 1975). The theory of illness and behavior by
George Engel (1980) targets the explanation of specific needs of the individual
through patient centered approach (Lewis., 2007). Using a specific theory to
understand patient’s condition enables the health care worker to understand the
patient requirements better and communicate well to build a rapport. The theory
focuses on how the individual monitors own body, define their symptoms produced
by the disease, take remedial actions for the cure, utilize the sources available, and
how they perceive health.
According to the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) disability is
considered as a wide term explaining impairment, activity limitation and participation
restriction (Leonardi et al., 2006). Also the disabled person is defined as someone
with persistent health condition or illness that may be physical or mental in nature.
As per social model of disability the needs of the people with specific needs are
given very little or no consideration in society. It introduces a concept of including
disabled people as the part of society (Albrecht et al., 2011). As in given case
Hannah is disabled due to Cerebral palsy but she works for others and with help of
the institute and agency she is being dignified as the equal part off society that
enables her to have positive perceptions towards her impairment and disabilities.
1.2
3

Disability and specific needs were not accepted earlier in society as they are today.
The stereotype and stigmatization present with the disabled individual further added
up to the challenges faced by them in this world. In early 16th century the Christian
beliefs determined that the people with mental retarded and illness were possessed
by the evil spirits (Levack., 2013). It was believed that people with mental retardation
and physical pain were subject to exorcisms and religious and spiritual process
(Levack., 2013). German and American beliefs in pre world period stated that
Eugenics that specified that people with disability should be isolated ad sterilized. In
19th century the Darwinism get into trend that argued how the disabled were unfit and
were not to be preserved and were the ones who were hampering the concept of
natural selection of the fittest. Baker et al (1953), stated how disease is not a
disgrace or punishment but a way of purification of soul. Greek mythology
considered sick people to be inferior. Some cultural believes portrayed sickness as
outcome of evil and black magic while other did not believe so (White., 2015). Till the
end of Victorian era the disabled were given asylum and sent to safe environment
known as asylum (Davis., 2014). In 1990 in UK “Community Care Act” was passed
this was change in the entire concept of disability (White., 2015). Disabled people
were started to be accepted in society and return to community as equal but they
require changes in their surroundings for support and these changes are considered
as the specific needs of the individual. Slowly several acts were passed including the
“Disability Employment Act, 1944”, “Equality Act. 2010”, “The Mental Capacity Act”
etc. (Dawsos and Szmukler., 2006) Nowadays the laws are so suitably working for
the disabled individuals that their necessities are addressed using specific strategies
and they are promoted with better respect and dignity by the community members. In
case of Hannah it is evident how her contribution towards bringing this change is
also visible and herself being a disabled individual is not achieving better care and
services with respect and equality in the society. The current changes in society
have led to acceptance of disability as a medical condition and not possession of any
evil spirit or punishment from the supreme power.
1.3
There are various Acts and legislation that are introduced to promote better services
to the disabled individuals. The Community Care Act enables local authorities to
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provide direct payments to help the disabled people financially to commission their
own needs. Health Act (1999) was introduced with aim of integrating variety of
services that will address their needs. Disability Discrimination Act (1995), made it an
unlawful practice to discriminate against disabled individual in community, workplace
or any premises (Heginbotham., 1998). The Disability Equity Act (2005) obliged the
public workers to take role for promotion of equality for disabled people. The Human
Rights Act (1998), made sure that all the public and government authorities would
provide services that foster the human rights.
The impact of these legislation and social policies is diverse and helps in changing
the perception of the society towards disability. They helps in reducing the
discrimination with disabled individual, inclusion of the disabled in the community as
equal entity, follows person centered care, modified the attitude of the community
members towards the disabled individual (Stuart., 2006). The social attitude towards
disabled further deteriorated their quality of life, introduction of policies made it clear
how to treat disabled individual and reduced the risk of harm to these individuals.
According to the social model the legislation and social policies work in order to
reduce the discrimination to enhance the quality of life of the individual. These
policies allow the individual to seek services without any inequality resent as well as
with proper planning to address their specific requirements (Harper., 2004). It helped
to avoid mental implications of the disability present for the individual associated with
social rejection and attitudes.
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LO2
2.1
The care needs of an individual are based on the type and intensity of the disability
they are suffering from. The needs may be associated to physical, mental or social
requirements as per the illness of disability of the person (Goh, Gao and Agarwal.,
2011). Analyzing the care requirements of the individual is an important aspect of
health and social care. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs the holistic lifestyle
requirements are built of different tiers that has different needs in life and each level
can be accomplished by addressing and achieving those needs (Lestera., 2013).
Specific needs are identified needs that person requires to overcome the challenges
presented by health or illness. Some of the identified conditions that requires the
person to seek specific needs are blindness, learning deficits, mental retardation,
hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, neural diseases etc. Some of the needs that are
identified for the individual can be classified as felt needs or expressed needs.
(Dougherty., 2010). Felt needs are the one the person in community feel they need
and expressed needs are ones that a person asks for. Special care needs are the
ones that are to be addressed associated to disability. It includes functional
limitations, presence of the health conditions and performance restriction needs.
Identifying the needs of the individual helps the healthcare professional to better plan
the care for the individual and involve patient centered approach. As in given case
the patient is suffering from cerebral palsy her care needs can be identified as
special education needs, walking and mobility assistance, assistance with day to day
work and task performance, speech therapy, social interactions etc. (McLeod.,
2007). The roper assessment of these requirements should be done to promote
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better care and services to the individual. The health care professionals can work to
identify these needs and provide assistance with bathing, eating, walking, moving,
hygiene, physical exercise, transportation and mental support.
2.2
System is defined as the set of things working together as a part of a connection or
interconnected setting (Strang., 2015). The people with specific needs are usually
not promoted with all the facilities and requirements that can enhance their quality of
life and help them live a normal or considerably comfortable life. In order to provide
better services to address the specific needs of the individual the health and social
care organizations needs to improve their infrastructure, technology, equipment, staff
and machinery. In the UK there are variety of strategies and programmes working in
order to provide suitable facilities to the people suffering from disabilities (McLeod.,
2007). Other than these strategies the health and social care sector in the UK works
to promote health and boost up the confidence for the individuals with disabilities to
lead their life overcoming the challenges they face and the discrimination they suffer
from. Motivational interviewing and counseling by the community nurses and the
health and social care practitioners is an essential step or strategy that will help the
disabled individuals to cope with the current conditions and enhance their quality of
life (Goh, Gao and Agarwal., 2011). The advice that a person can achieve through
these strategies to modify their living and adapt to the lifestyle that will enhance their
quality of life is useful. Training sessions and activities are promoted and organized
to teach the person with disability to depend on own self for ADL and how to perform
daily tasks. In given case Hannah is suffering from cerebral palsy and her condition
when assessed identified that her needs were best promoted by providing special
mental health requirements, special education needs, providing her assistance with
the daily routine and mobility using a wheelchair is the correct strategy to address
her needs (Dougherty., 2010). The current system provides facilities for the
individual without specific needs but has to develop more in order to provide services
for the individual with specific needs.
2.3
Specific needs is defined as any of the various difficulties including physical, mental,
social, cognitive or functional that requires individual to seek additional or specialized
services for care are known as specific needs.
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LO3
3.1
8

Approach is defined as the way of dealing with the situation or a condition (Merriam
Webstar., 1928). Intervention is defined as the action taken to improve the medical
disorder diagnosed or the condition related to health (Medicine Net., 2010). Cerebral
palsy as discussed is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the functional
abilities and motor functions of the human body. The interventions used for the
management of cerebral palsy include behavior management and motor skills
interventions. Different types of therapies and strategies are associated with the
management of cerebral palsy (Goh, Gao and Agarwal., 2011). These include
cognitive therapies, motor function therapies, behavior management, psychotherapy,
complementary therapies etc. (Morgan et al., 2016). Including early motor
intervention for the infants and toddlers diagnosed with cerebral palsy improves the
gross motor functioning of the individual. Hydrotherapy for adolescents and adults
with cerebral palsy is proved to be beneficial and allows the individual to cope with
the movement challenges and pain. Traditional physiotherapy and occupational
therapy are considered as one of the effective treatment and management of
cerebral palsy. Neurodevelopment treatment, sensory integration, electrical
stimulation, patterning and hippo therapy are new trends in the management of
cerebral palsy.
These interventions are designed to address the needs of the individual suffering
from cerebral palsy. It allows the health and social care service provider to design
and prepare the strategies and plan the care of the individual in order to foster the
needs of the person and focus on patient centered care. In case of Hannah who is
also suffering from cerebral palsy “The Disabilities Trust” and “The Princes Trust”
helped her achieve all these requirements by promoting the services to her including
SEN, motor function therapy, behaviour management etc. The environment of the
organizations she lived is so soothing to her that it helped her cope with her
condition and developed sense of acceptance and positivism in her thought process
(World Health Organization., 2001).
3.2
Intervention strategies are defined as the systemic process of assessment and
planning that is employed to prevent or manage a social, physical, educational or
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developmental problems (Krigger., 2006). Different interventions for cerebral palsy
as discussed are used to manage the severity of the condition and help the
individual lead a normal life. Effectiveness of these interventions is to be measured
to provide evidence based practice and help the individual to achieve best
interventive strategies (Patel., 2005). The traditional physiotherapy and occupational
therapy are stated to be effective in enhancing the motor functions of the individual.
It helps in improving balance, posture control, gait, mobility and ability to transfer
(Dodd, Imms and Taylor., 2010). The effectiveness of neurodevelopmental treatment
in cerebral palsy is not well claimed but yet it is seen as one of the helping
intervention to help individual with the symptoms of CP (Patel., 2005). Similarly the
sensory interventions for cerebral palsy as suggested are not very well claimed to be
beneficial but some studies indicate their effectiveness (Patel., 2005). Patterning on
other hand is set to be an effective measure which helps in development of the brain
function by repetitive steps development but it is seen as a time consuming and
requires multiple sessions every day to be able to provide evident effects (Patel.,
2005). Similarly electric stimulation is set to be effective intervention for
neurodevelopmental conditions but it is not proved to be highly beneficial in the
management of cerebral palsy. Hence, use of physiotherapy, behaviour modification
therapies and context therapy is found to be useful in management of cerebral palsy
(Patel., 2005).
In given case also it is seen that Hannah has been provided these therapies some of
them were effective for her development and management of cerebral palsy
including the use of physiotherapy, behaviour management sessions and physical
activities (Damiano, Alter and Chambers., 2009). It is highly recommended to include
context therapy and behaviour management therapies in the management and
interventions of the cerebral palsy as it provided better outcomes and helps in
enhancing the quality of life of the individual by addressing their specific needs.
3.3
Emerging development in health and social care are proved to be beneficial for the
development of management strategies and interventions for various disease that
previously were non manageable. It includes the new development including
information, technology, social policies, education, communication, psych
technologies, cognitive science etc. (Novak., 2014). This emerging development s
10

helps in enhancing the development of the capabilities for the disabled individuals
and has positive impact on their health.
Technology is one of the widely emerging concept in health care it has made health
and social care a sector of diverse modalities and aspects. The development of
technology has made the services for the disabled individuals more suitable and
easy to be provided that enables the introduction of electric wheelchair, walking aids
for the people with limited mobility, aids to develop cognitive functioning etc. (Dewar,
Love and Johnston., 2015). These modalities not only assist the patient but help
them to have complete control over their lives and participate in the activities as per
their choice. Health care professionals also reply on the technology to diagnose, and
provide treatment for the health issues. Magnification, tele robotics, digitalization
have helped in enhancing the quality and standard of services. Prosthetics with use
of technology is proved to be beneficial in enhancing the quality of life of individual
with limited mobility (McLeod., 2011).
Education is another emerging development and has helped in health and social
care also to a great extent. The concept of Special Education Needs was introduced
and is implemented to make the children with learning and mental deficit attain
education through their level of understanding (Damiano, Alter and Chambers.,
2009). These modalities are promoting the better service base and enhanced
standard care to disabled individual to achieve equality in this world.
Hannah is suffering from cerebral palsy and as seen she is been promoted better
services with use of emerging technological aids such as wheel chairs and walking
assistances. Her education is also been covered under SEN and the trust she relies
on is working for her to achieve better education and qualification through these
emerging trends.
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LO4
4.1
Challenging behavior is defined as the behavior of cultural abnormality that presents
serious threat to the physical safety of the person and other surrounding him.
Challenging behavior can be classified under verbal, nonverbal, or physical behavior
that present challenge for the healthcare professional to promote better care and
services. Different concepts of challenging behavior were introduced and modified
with time. Burton (2001) explained challenging behvaiour as the ones that are not
inherited in the person but presents a challenge to services and supporters of the
person. Some of the factors influencing challenging behavior include work
environment, life vents, communication, and life stages. The two widely accepted
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