SOCIOLOGY

Sociology



Sociology

Question 1

The Usefulness of the Medical Model in the Field of Disability

The medical model view the disability of a person as a problem which is directly caused by trauma, disease, or some other health conditions which need adequate medical care in the form of a treatment by doctors. In this kind of model, the purpose of disability management is to cure the disease effectively. Medical care is considered as a main issue in this model, while at political level, it is considered as reforming or modifying the healthcare policies.

This model of disability is a socio-political model in which disability or illness is inseparable from the person and is the part of their own body. It is referred to as a medical model of disability because of the high degree of medical solutions such as orthotics, surgery and clinical physical therapy which are highlighted as the best possible way to normalise the condition of a disabled person. From this perspective, we can say that the medical model of disability provides cure or management of disability/illness, and have complete identification of disability/illness in a clinical perspective, and it also knows how to control and/or modify the disease (James 2000, 3).

Disability is limited in scope due to psychological, physical, social, sensory, cultural, legal and other barriers that prevent a person with a disability to be integrated into society and take part in the family or the public on the same basis as the other members of society. The country must be obliged to adapt its existing standards to the specific needs of people with disabilities, in order to enable them to live an independent life. Now, around the world, the trend is the increasing number of children with disabilities.

In a broader sense, we believe that the medical model provides resources to the society in the health and related services, which are invested as an attempt to cure the disabilities, in order to enhance the functionality so that the handicapped people may lead a normal life. However, the responsibility and potential of health care professionals is of ??central importance in this area (Brisenden 1986, 173).

Often, the medical model of disability is used for justifying larger investments in research and technology. If the environment of a disabled person would be adjusted, this could ultimately be better for society as a whole, as well as cheaper and more practical to implement. Still, one can see the medical model of disability as an issue of civil rights and may criticise charitable or medical initiatives that use it in their portrayal of disabled people, because it promotes a miserable, essentially negative, mostly powerless image of people with disabilities, rather than as a political, social and environmental problem to accept (Bob 2006, 90).

The Usefulness of the Social Model in the Field of Disability

The social model views the disability issue as a problem which is created socially which also causes full integration of people into society. In the social model of disability, the disability is not viewed ...