Week 11: Disability, Disadvantage, Vulnerability and Stigma

Disability, disadvantage, vulnerability and stigma were the topics for this week. This involved exploring the various difficulties in accessing health care for a number of different groups including people with disability; who are disadvantaged, vulnerable and/or stigmatized for being different. Interviews viewed this week included Leeanne regarding cerebral palsy and various other disability groups and her charity/organisation Sunshine Butterflies, Kay discussing physical disability, Trudy concerning stigma of mental health challenges and Kay on the topic of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gendered, Intersexed and Queers [LGBTIQ] Group.

Sunshine Butterflies: A logical disability support service and charity supporting babies, kids, tweens, teens & adults with a disability and their families.

Hearing from Leeanne, Kay, Trudy and Kay it opened my eyes to the numerous challenges these various minority groups still face in today’s modern society. I feel they all were communicating the same overall message, being that we should treat patients (and all people for that matter) as we would want to be treated ourselves regardless of their disability, lifestyle, social status or sexual orientation. I was surprised to discover that 4.2 million Australians or 18.5% of Australia’s population identified as having a disability (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2012, para. 1) and yet it appears to me there still seems to be so many challenges needing to be overcome to enable everyone to access equitable health care.

Through my research I discovered that in relation to their health care experiences, people with disabilities often felt invisible and/or believed they were viewed as incompetent (de Vries et al., 2016, p. 74). de Vries et al. (2016, p. 78) also highlighted that transportation was also identified as a major concern for those with mobility disabilities. For people who identify with the LGBTIQ groups, Alencar Albuquerque et al. (2016, p. 2) informs they tend to suffer poorer health status due to experiences of discrimination and prejudice from health care professionals. Similarly, a major barrier for attaining appropriate treatment for mental illness sufferers is the stigma attached to it and this has been identified as why a majority of people who experience mental-health challenges do not seek help (Hanisch, 2016, p. 1).

This week’s discussions will enable me to be a better nurse as the readings and interviews have highlighted to me the various struggles the disabled, disadvantaged, vulnerable and stigmatized face in accessing equitable health care. These issues can be partly addressed through training health care professionals to include patients in their treatment and by also providing health care that is adapted and tailored to an individual’s needs, (de Vries et al., 2016, p. 81).