People with disabilities encounter a series of problems when they try to get some health care. Some barriers are related to the disabled person, others are just problems of the society. The thing is, if you are disabled, it’s a lot harder to take care of yourself.
The costs
Affordability of health services and transportation are the main reasons here. People with disabilities do not receive needed health care in low-income countries – 32-33% of non-disabled people are unable to afford health care compared to 51-53% of people with disabilities.
Limited availability of services
To be exact, the lack of appropriate services for people with disabilities. After the cost, the lack of services is the second most significant barrier to using health facilities, especially in low developed countries. The services simply do not exist and even if they are available, they are not affordable for the masses.
Inadequate skills and knowledge of health workers
The skills of the medical workers are almost every time inadequate to meet their needs. Most of them are poorly trained and simply don’t know how to treat them. Each and every disabled person has a specific problem and for most of medical workers this is a big problem. They are not necessarily doing this on purpose, they just don’t have enough skill to offer the right treatment. Compared to the average patient, people with disabilities are four times more likely to report being treated badly and nearly three times more likely to report being denied care.
Physical barriers
Inaccessible medical equipment, poor signage, narrow doorways, uneven access to buildings (hospitals, health centres), inadequate bathroom facilities, internal steps, and inaccessible parking areas create barriers to health care facilities. For example, women with mobility difficulties are often unable to access breast and cervical cancer screening because examination tables are not height-adjustable and mammography equipment only accommodates women who are able to stand.
The information used in this post was inspired by http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs352/en/
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