International Day of Persons with Disabilities (#IDPD)

On Int'l Day of Ppl with Disabilities (#IDPD), TOI covers my plea to include disability education into medical curriculum.

As per WRD, people with disabilities are TWICE as likely to find health care provider skills and equipment inadequate to meet their needs; THREE times as likely to be denied care; and FOUR times as likely to be treated badly by health care providers. 

The new introduction by the UN of the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) and the legal obligation as we have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [UN CRPD 2006, Article 25 (d)] provides an impetus to re-ground disability medical education on the social model rather medical model. It has been shown that introduction of short disability courses appears to change medical students association of depersonalized or negative words with disability.

Office of Chief Commissioner for Disabilities has already instructed MCI that “doctors not trained on rehabilitation should restrict their treatment of children with disabilities to their medical illness/disease or else action be initiated against such practices under relevant section of MCI.

Competencies and guidelines to assist Indian doctors in caring for patients with disabilities have yet to be established, thus making educational goals unclear. This becomes of utmost importance as the ‘Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill’ includes 19 disabilities. The new curriculum therefore should involve people with disabilities and educational strategies must use standardized patients with disabilities rather than non-disabled feigning disability. A number of medical schools abroad have acknowledged the expertise that people with disabilities can bring to medical education by including them as teachers.

Regulation 1.9 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics), Regulations, 2002 states that , “The physician shall observe the laws of the country and observe the provisions of the State Acts like Mental Health Act, 1987; PwD Act 1995. 

Read the full TOI report here.

Symposium on “Integrating the Medical and Social Models of Disability: Time for a New Paradigm

Symposium on “Integrating the Medical and Social Models of Disability: Time for a New Paradigm 15th June, 2013

Indian Spinal Injury Centre (ISIC) and Cross the Hurdles (CTH) are jointly hosting a one-day symposium on Integrating the Medical and Social Models of Disability: Time for a New Paradigm” on Saturday, 15th June, 2013 at ISIC, New Delhi.

Following is the list of speakers and their topics:

1.      Dr A K Mukherjee, ISIC- Defining Disability in 21st Century

2.      Dr. Poonam K Singh, Advisor (International Health) MOHFW, GOI- Keynote address
3.   Dr S Y Kothari, ISIC- Current approach towards disability

4.      Shivani Gupta, AccessAbility- Barriers accentuating disabling conditions
5.   Dr Satendra Singh, UCMS - Embracing the Social Model: The UCMS experience
6.   Dr. Uma Tuli, Amar Jyoti - Successful model of social & medical inclusion: a case study
7.      Maj. DP Singh - Advocacy efforts in rehabilitation

8.      Abha Khetarpal, CTH - Promoting Disability Studies in Healthcare

9.   Dr. H. S. Chhabra, ISIC - Integrating the Medical and Social Models of Disability: Time for a New Paradigm

10. Panel discussion: Consumer perspective

Concept Note of the Symposium

Disability studies provide nuanced ways of thinking about disease, medical ethics, and social justice in health care. It plays the role of a cultural studies field that bridges interdisciplinary academic scholarship, medicine, and patient activism along with fostering collaboration among disciplines and between the common man and the professionals.

Medical models of health care often overlook the social dimensions of health and health care. Disability studies, on the other hand, contrasts the biological model with a social model. It lays stress on finding how much can the suffering of different bodies be relieved through the adjustment, not of biological variables, but of social variables. It unpacks the role of ableism, pathologization, individualization, isolation, confinement, and lack of access in producing human suffering.

The Medical Model of disability perceives disability as a functional impairment. An integrative, biopsychosocial approach towards disability by collaborating health care and Disability Studies is required for mainstreaming of disability in an inclusive developmental agenda. Disability Studies encourages perspectives that place disability in social, cultural, and political contexts.

Available opportunities to learn about disability and rehabilitation must therefore be strengthened by ensuring that the society acquires not only the specific knowledge and skills, but also the attitudes required to provide effective service to persons with disability. Collaboration between health care professionals, university academics, persons with disability, and disability interest groups may help in ensuring that everyone is adequately sensitised to issues about disability. Disability studies, if introduced in various fields of education, especially medical education can offer an explicit commitment to assist disabled people in their fight for full equality and social inclusion. Thus a successful integration between Medical and Social Models of disability would be brought about.

Infertility: Why can’t we classify this inability as disability?

Here’s a paper jointly written by Abha Khetarpal (Non-institutional expert, Enabling Unit) and myself (Founder, InfiniteAbility; Coordinator, Enabling Unit) on infertility as disability.

Khetarpal A, Singh S. Infertility: Why can’t we classify this inability as disability? Australas Med J. 2012;5(6):316-321

Disability is a complex phenomenon. It reflects an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), lays stress on the functional as well as the structural problem of a person. All the definitions of disability also include the disorders of the reproductive and endocrine system. So infertility and impotency should also be included in the category of disability. It affects the participation in areas of life and can have a disabling affect on an individual. Like any other disability the couple has to adapt and integrate infertility in their sense of self thus infertility comes as a major life crisis. Medically, infertility, in most cases, is considered to be the result of a physical impairment or a genetic abnormality. Socially, couples are incapable of their reproductive or parental roles. On social level, infertility in most cultures remains associated with social stigma and taboo just like the social model of disability. Couples who are unable to reproduce may be looked down upon due to social stigmatisation. Infertility can lead to divorces and separation leading to a broken family life. Without labelling infertility as a disability, it is difficult for the people to access services and welfare benefits offered by the government. Infertility treatments are highly sophisticated so they are very expensive and are even not covered by insurance and government aid. In the light of all this it becomes imperative to categorise infertility as disability.     

Read the full article here on PubMed Central.