Mental Health and Disability

People with mental and psychosocial disabilities make up a significant portion of the world population. Millions of people around the world suffer from mental disorders. Mental potential of a person varies depending on the life situation and experiences. Good mental health is the basis of an individual`s well-being, it helps to go through a temporary depression, increases the ability to respond to the changing situation and helps to survive the inevitable difficulties. You can find it in the example of research proposal https://bestwritingservice.com/research-paper-abstract.html.

The mental health is affected by many factors, such as social support, i.e. family and friends closeness, physical health, and positive relationships with people in early childhood. Social aspects, such as the ability to learn and work, as well as prevailing values and attitudes in society, such as tolerance for individual differences, are important conditions for a good mental health. Mental disorders are classified according to typical symptoms and severity. Absence of proper treatment of all major mental disorders leads to complete disability in most cases.

In this paper, we will evaluate individual medical and social models; the key concepts of disability rights, legal duties and the social agenda including integration, inclusion and modernization; the role of social care in inter-professional working with disability and mental health services; and, in the end, we will develop strategies for anti-oppressive practice, empowering service users and carers with disabilities and mental health issues.

Critical evaluation of individual medical and social models of mental health and disability

There are such mental disorders like depression, dementia, schizophrenia, self-harm, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc. Each of them leads to disability. The medical model views disability as a problem. People with disability should adapt themselves to the world as much as possible. If this is not possible, then they need to be sent in a special school or stay at home without being able to get out as desired or special conditions for their life should be organized. The emphasis is on dependence, and the approach is based on the stereotype that disability causes such feelings as a pity, fear and the desire to patronize.

To the question "What makes a person disabled?" a person looking at the world through a medical model, replied something like "people are disabled because they have problems with brains", or because they can’t speak normally etc., which means that this problem is related to a person`s mental state.

And in accordance with this following patterns of perception are formed:

• People with disabilities are always sick.
• People with disabilities do not fall under the definition of standards and therefore:
• Disabled people cannot work;
• Disabled people do not have access to regular schools;
• Disabled people should not have children;
• People with disabilities are a burden.

The medical model defines people in terms of what they cannot do. That is why many governments passed the laws in order to establish special institutions for people with disabilities and based their policy in such a way as to isolate people with disabilities from society.

The social model has been developed in an attempt to present a paradigm that is an alternative to the dominant perception of medical disability. Therefore, it is mainly aimed at overcoming the barriers that isolate people with disabilities and do not allow them to become full members of their communities.

According to this model, the situation regarding people with disabilities and the discrimination they experience are artificially created by the society. The social model provided and continues to provide leading philosophical principles. The basic ideas of the model are set in the Fundamental Principles of Disability (1976): " disability is a situation, caused by social conditions, which requires for its elimination, (a) that no one aspect such as incomes, mobility or institutions is treated in isolation, (b) that disabled people should, with the advice and help of others, assume control over their own lives, and (c) that professionals, experts and others who seek to help must be committed to promoting such control by disabled people."

Understanding disability from this side helps the disabled people get the power that allows them to fight with the barriers, whether mental, physical, or communication barriers that do not allow them to fully participate in society.

Thus, answering the same question asked earlier, "What makes a person disabled?" a man who views the problem in the light of the social model, replied:

• People are disabled because of actual barriers in the environment."
• People are disabled because of a lack of access to information and communication."
• People are disabled because they are not given equal opportunities for employment."
• People are disabled due to the inaccessible housing, transportation."
• People are disabled due to the negative attitude of the society towards people with disabilities, because of systemic discrimination."

The social model recognizes that people with disabilities, like others, from time to time are in need of medical care. However, this model says that people with disabilities cannot be treated as objects of medical intervention. It is impossible for them to function like other people not because of their actions but rather due to the negative attitude of the society and the ways in which it is organized.

Critical evaluation of the key concepts of disability rights, legal duties and the social agenda including integration, inclusion and modernization

In the United States, the first legal definition of disability was given when many maimed soldiers returned from the Civil War (1861-1865). According to the Civil War pension law, the disabled veterans of the Union Army (North) have been granted pension credits on the basis of their "inability to engage in manual labor." This model essentially defines disability as a physical flaw, excluding equal participation in society and the ability to earn money for a living. However, not all types of disability are treated equally, some disorders were attacked as "shameful", mental disorders and infectious diseases are often deemed as unworthy of assistance, and persons with such disabilities have been discriminated.

In the 1960s a social security program set a goal to support a much wider group of people living in poverty and the disabled. But these programs continued to be based on a traditional approach: a person's ability to adapt to a world was evaluated according to the person`s abilities and there was a segregation of people who were unable to participate in a normal life. This was accompanied with the statements about people who are worthy to receive benefits or services, and who are not.

In the 1970s, people with disabilities were seen as a social minority, a group of people who have civil rights to be protected in the same way as other minorities, in order to seek for equality. This has created a new legal model of a disability evaluation system, a system based on greater involvement of people with disabilities in society, the expansion of their rights and their economic independence. Supporters of this new look soon realized that they needed new laws defining the rights and concerns of this group. The new model led to the adoption of laws that guarantee access to voting, to air transport; moreover, the laws have to ensure the independence of access to education and habitation, and the culmination was the ADA. This law prohibits discrimination based on disability.

The system of disability rights, provided by the ADA, is running successfully. It really brings together countries of the world in an effort to improve the lives of people with physical and mental disabilities. In 2006 the international treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities around the world was adopted by the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons. In the United States, Americans with Disabilities Act helps in reducing discrimination and encouraging employers to create specially-appointed jobs.

Critical evaluation of the role of social care in inter-professional working between disability and mental health services

In social care, there is the Act of Training, which requires state governments to reserve at least 10 percent of federal grants for teaching disabled students. At all, the country has an extensive network of vocational training, counseling, and employment of the disabled people. It carries out activities in the physical and psychological rehabilitation, providing assistive technology, vocational training, employment in enterprises with gentle conditions and large plants.

Employers, who refuse to employ a disabled person, are subject to a significant fine. And companies that accept people with disabilities have the tax benefits. Meanwhile, there are no job quotas for disabled workers. Vocational Rehabilitation of Disabled People is controlled by the Presidential Committee on the employment of the disabled people. The President shall report annually on training and employment of persons with disabilities, as well as the size of their salaries. The country has established a national holiday - the Day of the disabled person.

Each state has its own laws. For example, in New York State legislative documents include: * automated teller machines (machine ATM) to use audio-visual systems and provide customers with information; * gas stations are required to provide full service (and self-service areas) for people with disabilities who have special resolution (handicapped parking permit); * all public hearings must be provided - if necessary – with a sign language interpreter services; * all subsidized housing programs are funded by the treasury of the city; a state or country should provide for the resettlement of people with disabilities; * the State Department of Health approved new rules of service in hospitals for patients with disabilities, including those wholly or partially deaf * high-rise buildings should have a special plan for the evacuation of disabled people living and working there in case of emergency; * management of any high-rise building shall have a list of tenants with disabilities - in case of evacuation and resettlement in the event of natural disasters; * all parking spaces for disabled drivers should be marked with large signs and diagonal lines, as well as they should be much wider.

People with disabilities have the same civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights as others in accordance with all international treaties. Examples of such laws are: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition to general international instruments on human rights at the international level, specific legislation on the rights of persons with disabilities is adopted. In contrast to the above-mentioned international legal instruments, those instruments are declarations, resolutions and normative guidelines, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations and they are not legally binding. Among them, the Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded People, the Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the World Program of Action concerning disabled persons, Tallinn Guidelines for Action on Human Resources Development in the Field of Disability, UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.

Scientists and experts from many countries are working to solve a noble task - to develop some new, effective programs to enhance the value of life of disabled people and their social rehabilitation, to provide them with wider and fuller participation in all spheres of life, and to be treated equally with non-disabled people.

Nowadays all over the world the idea of social integration, equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities are widespread. Unfortunately, among the main problems in the world are those related to: people with disabilities and generally lower salary income, the level of consumption of goods and the level of education. There are noticeable differences between people with disabilities and healthy people in such an important area as family. The number of marriages where one or both partners are people with disabilities is very low. In addition, disability leads to difficulties related to keeping families. Civic involvement of people with disabilities is low; they are less interested in social problems and this is natural, because they are cut off from the society.

One of the main reasons for this is lack of harmonious relations between people with disabilities and the community. Healthy attitude towards persons with disabilities is- one of the most important socio-psychological factors of their integration in the society. After all, even being professionals, with the desire and potential to contribute to society, the people with disabilities cannot always implement their abilities and knowledge because they cannot find a company that will employ them since in most cases the company's administration is afraid to employ such workers. In fact, no matter how good and fair are the laws which are passed by the government, they will not be successfully executed if the society is not ready for it psychologically.

First priority of the social policy of the state regarding persons with disabilities is recognized rehabilitation direction, which is understood as a system of measures aimed at restoring the social status of people with disabilities, housing and home appliance, the assignment of work, learning, adaptation, benefits and compensation. Rehabilitation direction contributes to the viability of disabled people and it is generally focused on the accepted international standards.

Adaptive training helps the disabled people adapt to the disabled state arising as a result of injury or illness, and informs them on how to use different technical and other means provided to support these people. Its purpose is to provide social and psychological independence, strengthen the abilities of disabled people, and it is designed to facilitate the employment of disabled people, to strengthen their commitment to adapt to a new work and to achieve success at it.