2.1
A physical disability is any disability that affects the physical function of one or more limbs. Physical disabilities can be either congenital or acquired after birth due to an accident or disease.
2.2
Describe the following terminology used in relation to physical disability:
Congenital
Acquired
Neurological
A congenital disability is a medical condition which you are born with, congenital disorders are caused by development problems with the fetus before birth, congenital disorders are also genetic and can be passed down from one or both parents. Examples of congenital disabilities:
• Cerebral palsy
• Cystic fibrosis
• Spina bifida
• Congenital heart conditions
• Muscular dystrophy
• Congenital hip disorder
An acquired disability is a medical condition that you get later on in life they can form from accidents (such as a car crash), illness or working conditions that expose a person to an unhealthy environment. Examples of acquired disabilities:
• Arthritis
• Rheumatism
• Cardiac conditions
• Pulmonary conditions from work conditions
A neurological disability is a disorder within the body’s nervous system including the brain and spinal cord, there are many different cause for neurological disabilities such as heart attacks, infections, genetic disorders, and lack of oxygen to the brain. Having a neurological disability can affect a person’s capacity to move. Examples of neurological disabilities:
• Multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Stroke
2.3
A stroke is a serious neurological medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, there’s two types of strokes ischemic and hemorrhagic. Strokes are the third biggest cause of death after heart disease and cancer, the brain damage caused by strokes means that they are the largest cause of adult disability in the UK. The causes of a stroke could be smoking, being overweight, lack of exercise and a poor diet. The
References: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Cystic-fibrosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx01.02.14 2.4 A progressive disability can have many different negative impacts on an individual, the most common being depression. Depression is a very low mood that lasts up to two weeks sometimes longer, depression is most common when an individual is diagnosis and when a change occurs in their condition. Being depressed can have an effect on your sleeping (sleeping to little or too much) loss of appetite, less energy and no motivation. Maintaining independence can be difficult as their condition continues to get worse they may require adaptive equipment such as a walking stick or wheelchair help with day to day tasks such as getting dressed and needing assistance getting in and out of the bath. People may feel embarrassed using the equipment provided, this could cause them to become socially isolated. 3.2/3.3 If a person is physically disabled and they live in an area where they have to travel to their appointments but they can’t drive themselves they will have to spend money on transport to get there, however they may not be able to afford it so they end up missing an important appointment that’s why the Equality Act 2010 was put in place. The Disability Discrimination Act was put in place making it illegal to treat people with disabilities in a less favourable way than those without a disability, for example, public buildings/services now have to have ramps making it easily accessible for those in a wheel chair to get in and out safely whereas before they may not have been able to have get into a shop because it didn’t have a ramp so they’d have to find another shop that did. Another example of this is fair pay rate, if a disabled person was doing the same job as someone who wasn’t disabled they would have to be paid the exact same as them, if they didn’t get paid the same then the manager who is in charge of the wages could go to prison for breaching the Disability Discrimination Act and the Equality Act 2010. 3.4 Having these legislation 's in place has improved life for disabled people massively, now they can go out on their own and be independent doing normal everyday things like going to the shop and being able to get in and back out with no struggle, whereas before this could have been difficult for them and would need assistance or would have to look round for another shop that had a ramp for them to use. Now they feel ‘normal’ and respected like everyone else.