Factors Impacting on Health Care Delivery to Persons With Disabilities - Research Paper Example

Every person is entitled to receiving proper and quality healthcare regardless of their social status or backgrounds. However, some factors deny people with disabilities the opportunity of accessing health care. These factors can be social, cultural or even economic.

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Social and cultural factors

Up to date the society still comes up with myths and conceptions about disabilities. Most people shun and discriminate people living with disabilities. This in turn puts stigma and trauma on people living with disabilities and even in some cases these patients shy from visiting health facilities to acquire the care and treatment they require.

Some societies have cultural beliefs that some forms of disabilities occur as a result of a curse or punishment for doing something wrong, and this exerts feelings of shame and guilt in victims. These feelings cause harm as they can cause serious harm to the victims mental health and in most cases many victims who undergo this experience do not go to the hospital to receive care mostly because of fear, shame and guilt.

Some cultural beliefs may also deny a person with a disability a chance to access medical care. For example, a large population of the people in Vietnam disagrees with use of counseling and interventions as a way of treating mental illnesses (MENSAH, n.d.).

Economic factors

Another great barrier towards proper health care to people with disabilities is unemployment and low income among this group of people. In countries that are developing, the percentage of unemployed people with disabilities is 80 to 90%. For example, in the United States two-thirds of the people living with disabilities are unemployed. When compared to a person without disability, persons with disabilities have fewer chances of employment. Lack of employment translates to the lack of a health insurance and hence the individual will not be in a position of accessing proper health assistance. Most companies are afraid of hiring people with disabilities because they believe they will have to make adjustments to accommodate them which may be expensive. However, this is not the case as many do not need adjustments and when required installation is not expensive. For the little percentage that is employed the income is sometimes low and cannot cover all the medical needs. This is because some of the health care needed are expensive hence not accessible to many (CDC, 2017).

Health workers who lack adequate knowledge and skills on how to deal with people with disabilities also pose a threat to lack of proper health care. Most patients have complained of maltreatment and denial of care by health workers. Some healthcare facilities also lack facilities that are friendly to people with disabilities such as washrooms, equipment for detecting breast cancer that can accommodate people who are not able to stand too and many others (CDC, 2017).

Altruistic organizations

Altruistic organizations have been very instrumental in voicing and fighting for better living conditions and accessibility of health care for people living with disabilities. For example, Peace Corps (PC), Reasonable Accommodation for People with Disabilities (RAPD) has significantly helped people living with disabilities to secure and exploit equal chances of employment as any other person. Where need be, the program also offers accommodations which get rid of barriers that would stop people with disabilities from executing jobs that they are qualified and suitable for. Project Hope has also been of great help to people with disabilities in ways like supporting programs that give food to people with disabilities. The project has also offered assistance in ways like offering physical therapy, prosthetics and corrective surgeries to disabled people. There are many more non-profit organizations that have been formed for the purpose of making sure every disabled person can access and get the health care they need. Religious organizations formed by churches and members of different religions have also been instrumental in improving the health care of disabled persons. Non-religious programs have not been left behind as well.

Interventions

Over the years, awareness of people living with disabilities has risen, and more interventions are being put in place to reduce and eliminate health problems associated with disabilities as well as removing barriers that deny these people the right to proper health care. Some of these interventions include;

Persons with disabilities are being included in the process of planning and implementation of interventions and are also involved in the training of staff members. In doing so there is assurance that most common and crucial problems faced by disabilities are addressed (ASTHO, 2013).

People with disabilities are educated and emphasis is put on how important it is for them to visit health facilities for care and are also encouraged to voice any complaints of maltreatment they may receive from medical staff. Health care facilities and workplaces are also encouraged to make sure their equipment such as tables are accessible to persons with disabilities. Health care workers also receive training on how to treat patients with disabilities and this aims at reducing the failure of visiting health facilities due to fear of maltreatment (ASTHO, 2013).

Physical fitness of people with disabilities is encouraged by the partnership with fitness programs that assure to offer services friendly to disabled persons. This helps greatly in eliminating obesity in people with disabilities (ASTHO, 2013).

Health care decisions in the U.S towards people with disabilities

In 1990 in America the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. The purpose of this law is to fight for the rights of people living with disabilities by ensuring they receive services like transportation, state or government services, employment opportunities and health care similar to persons without a disability. Employers, for instance, are supposed to offer accommodations to employees or applicants who qualify for a particular position. These accommodations are meant to improve working conditions such as ease of movement for the people with disabilities. Employment and good working condition will ensure that persons with disabilities can access and afford health care. The Affordable Care Act is also a milestone towards lifting barriers to accessing health care by persons with disabilities. This Act will enable persons with disabilities to acquire health insurance by denying refusal of applicants by insurance companies based on their existing conditions (Peacock, Iezzoni, & Harkin, 2015).

Although ADA has put laws that are meant to make it easy for persons with disabilities to access health care, there is more that still needs to be done, more so, because the population of disabled persons is rising. This can be achieved through planning, education and implementation of better and efficient delivery systems (Peacock, Iezzoni, & Harkin, 2015).

Effective evidence-based interventions

Research has proven that provision of health care programs not only benefits the people with disability but the economy and the rest of the population also shares these benefits. For example, these programs are cost effective as they reduce health care expenses that are as a result of illnesses that can be prevented. These programs also ensure that healthcare is accessed by all (ASTHO, 2013).

Education forums targeting both the disabled and the society at large have also been very effective. Disabled people are assured of equal treatment and are also taught more about their conditions. This significantly boosts their confidence and do not shy from airing their grievances or even demanding better healthcare facilities. This has also led to disabled people forming their organizations where they can put their interest in the front line. Educating the society on disabilities has helped reduce misconce...