People with Disabilities

People with Disabilities

Introduction

Sometimes the worst disabilities are those, which are invisible to the naked eye. People who have a disability are overwhelmingly stigmatized by society and discrimination against them is not only widespread, but, also fully condoned in our culture. The disadvantages of disabilities can be compounded by the fact that the abilities which are disabled, tend to be those which are most useful in navigating the social provisions for the disabled, and by the lack of physical manifestations, which may discourage outsiders, from recognizing the need for intervention. Thus, there are many challenges facing the disabled, including a lack of social sensitivity to, acceptance of, and knowledge about these disabilities, and widespread institutional discrimination affecting employment, medical care, travel, residency, and many other aspects of life (Choe, at al, 2008).

In the recent years we normally come across awful tales related to the stigmatization and mistreatment of people with disabilities by not only the community but also by the institutions who provide care to these people. The ill treatment of these people is entirely a global trend. Mainly, the denial to treat people with disabilities is a large scale violation of the human rights. A group of researchers studied the data of mental health treatment in 17 countries on 84,850 adults; the countries are both developed and developing (www.mind.org). The data was from the World Health Organization's surveys of mental health. This group found that, in most developing countries, lack of treatment of mentally handicapped people existed to a dangerous extent. On the other hand, in developed countries people, more than half of people suffering from any disability received no treatment at all. Various institutions reported extremely high levels of exploitation, harassment and bullying for people with disabilities who live in the community in which the institution exist.

Discussion

A number of surveys conducted by the Health Education Authority revealed that a majority of people with cognitive disabilities are the centre of discrimination. Amongst these people, two-third faced discrimination because of their race. On the other hand, the remaining one third people faced discrimination because of their medical records. A report on the psychiatric hospitals of Turkey reveals terrible abuses of people who had a mental disability. In these hospitals, raw electric shock was given to patients as a punishment; whereas, in these hospitals the patients are given Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) without anesthesia so as to provide treatment for a range of mental diseases to not only adults but to children, as well. Another study revealed that, in mixed gender wards, where other patients are also under treatment, mentally handicapped people are at a higher risk of stigmatization. The investigators report that vulnerable patients are compulsorily detained, including women and young people who are at risk of rape, sexual harassment and intimidation (www.news.com.au).

Another report states that people with disabilities are fettered, abused and left hungry and naked for seven days in Australian hospital. A U.S organization of human rights named Mental Disability Rights International states that as many as 17,000 ...