Disability and Rehabilitation
Introduction
Disability is any condition that limits a person to perform certain activities. These conditions could be physical, mental or developmental. Rehabilitation is several interventions required when a person is experiencing limitations in functioning properly. This could be caused by health conditions, aging, and trauma among others. Rehabilitation helps people to return and maintain their daily activities and live healthy lives.
According to Rajiv S., Ayşe A. K., Klemen G. & Alan Gray (2018), the role of a rehabilitation specialist is to help patients with physical and mental disabilities to learn how to live independently. They offer assistance in reducing an individual’s condition from worsening. The specialist helps the individual to execute a task that they have difficulty in executing. They also help an individual to participate in situations that are difficult for them. They help in making an individual’s goals and objectives that the patient should try and meet.
Rajiv S., Ayşe A. K., Klemen G. & Alan Gray (2018) explain that the specialists come up with a treatment plan for the patients having consulted other professionals such as psychologists and therapists. They make the staff know and understand the needs and capabilities of their patients and the laws that affect people living with disabilities. They follow the patient’s progress and adjust treatment and the rehabilitation plan. They recommend for the rights of people living with disabilities to be given employment opportunities.
The types of disabilities seen in the facility include physical disability which is a limitation of a person’s mobility, functioning physically or not able to control the motion of a certain body part. Visual impairment is the lack of the ability to see and sometimes causes total blindness. Hearing impairments can range from mild to a person being completely deaf. Intellectual disability is experienced when a person is not able to remember or process information normally leading to limitations to acquire skills needed to live independently. Mental disorder is a condition that affects the brain and affects the way a person thinks, concentrates and acts. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects how a person communicates and interacts socially making it difficult. According to Disability Rehabilitation and Hospitals Information (2019), rehabilitation and physical medication are used to restore function capabilities to the people with disabilities. Physical therapy is used for strength and mobility purposes. Occupational therapy is used in patients with their daily activities. Speech therapy is used to help in speaking, writing, reading, and communicating.
When a patient makes progress through the therapies, they always want to learn more and the staff in the rehabilitation work well with them by praising and motivating them. Disability Rehabilitation and Hospitals Information (2019) states that the care programs in the rehabilitation work towards the ability of a person living quality and productive life even after they are discharged. They are given psychological support by the staff and the specialists through being talked to and being supported emotionally. Being accommodative to the patients gives more hope and encourages them to keep pushing. Psychological support for the patients is shown through loving them, encouraging them, helping them improve their self-esteem and understand their emotions. A patient has a right to privacy and freedom which is protected by the staff. When it comes to making decisions regarding the patient, it is the right of the patient and the family to be given enough information to make them a part of the process.
The rehabilitation facility is an inpatient facility where different therapies and treatments are offered. The staff in the facility are well trained to handle the different patients and each one of them has a different set of skills. Rajiv S., Ayşe A. K., Klemen G. & Alan Gray (2018) state that when the staff work as a team they provide the best results and give the best rehabilitation results to their patients and their families. The different specific skills that each staff has enables the team to be strong leading to well thought off decisions in terms of diagnosis, evaluation of a condition and treatment of a patient.
The supervisor of the facility says that teamwork in a rehabilitation facility works perfectly and is highly encouraged. According to Disability Rehabilitation and Hospitals Information (2019), the benefit of the in-patient facility is that it works towards helping a person function independently. A person is restored physically and psychologically and socially and gain their independence. The progress of a patient is observed well in the facility and the specialists can know what the patient needs and at what particular time. A patient can receive all the attention and this makes them motivated and responds to therapies and treatments positively.
Conclusion
Rehabilitation for people living with disabilities is essential because it enables people to restore their normalcy. It works towards helping people improve on how they live and depend on themselves. It enables people and their families to get attached and improves their social interactions. Through the different types of therapies, a person gets to a point where they can seek employment and support themselves. They learn how important they are in the community and how they can positively make an impact.
References
Disability Rehabilitation and Hospitals Information (2019) Disability Rehabilitation:
https://www.disabled-world.com
Rajiv S., Ayşe A. K., Klemen G. & Alan Gray (2018) The role of interdisciplinary teams in
physical and rehabilitation medicine: Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 50 (8)
