Mindsets: The Barriers to Empowering Health Options for People with Disabilities

Abstract

The capacity and the political will of service providers to facilitate effective rehabilitation, which places the person at the centre of all rehabilitative actions, is sorely challenged in a service environment permeated by a philosophy of economic rationalism and control of clients. People who cannot imagine how they would cope or manage with a disability tend to generalise the impossibility to all people with disabilities. Stereotyping can then occur and people might then be labelled according to someone else's limited perception. This can lead to depersonalization and marginalisation of the labelled group. This has been the experience of some disabled individuals in Australian society. These sorts of attitudes and behaviours towards people with disabilities and/or chronic health problems may be driven by a worldview that is based on the functional limitations model. If an individual has reduced self-management and autonomy and is socially isolated, then other human possibilities and choices become limited, including employment. Such individuals will remain trapped in the downward spiral of limited options, disillusionment and disempowerment if rehabilitation officers and other health workers continue to do 'more of the same'.