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Disability
is not Inability |
DISABILITY AND HIV/AIDS.
3rd August 2006
In developing countries including Kenya, access to health is a
major challenge for disabled communities. HIV/AIDS management
programmes are developed on the foundations of the existing health
programmes which are not disability friendly. Kenya National AIDS
Strategic Plan 2006 - 2010 identifies disability as one of the
vulnerable groups. The plan identifies various priority areas
that should be implemented to make AIDS management disability-friendly.
The persons with disabilities strategic plan 2006 – 2009
also outlines various issues including access to health as the
strategic issues to be tackled.
Disability means a physical, sensory, mental or other impairment,
including any visual, hearing, learning or physical incapability,
which impacts adversely on social, economic or environmental participation.
Estimates derived from the National Census 1999, puts disabled
populations at 10 percent of the 30 million Kenyans. A health
system that denies access to ten percent of Kenyan population
needs to be overhauled.
HIV/AIDS priority areas include one, prevention of new infections;
second, improve quality of life of disabled people infected and
affected with HIV/AIDS by improving treatment and care, protection
or rights access to effective services for infected and affected
disabled persons. Finally mitigation of socio-economic impact
by adopting existing programmes and develop innovative responses
to reduce the impact of the epidemic on disabled communities and
their access to social services and economic productivity.
Disability-friendliness of our health system is determined by
the quality of access to health services in public health institutions.
A quality standard of HIV/AIDS services and programmes needs several
adjustments to make them friendly to disability. Areas that need
adjustments in health sector include medical staff attitudes to
disabled clients, proficiency in sign language, attitudes of disabled
clients to health facilities.
Inteventions that increase partcipation.
Interventions that Increase participation of disabled persons
in the programmes are more successful. There are various disability
organizations and projects that have successfully organized disability
friendly interventions. Liverpool Deaf VCT programme, Kenya national
Deaf AIDS education programme, Dandora Deaf Self help group under
Handicap International are among the existing deaf programmes
that have been successfully adjusted to meet the direct needs
of the deaf. There also exists programmes’ targeting the
physically disabled like UDEK AIDs programme. There are also programmes
that target the blind and the deafblind.
Most of the above are awareness interventions which require adjustment
of materials. Communication challenges are best overcomes by adjusting
the information education and communication (IEC) materials to
be disability-friendly. There are three Deaf VCT sites which were
developed by training deaf counselors and peer educators. One
of the major challenges of participation of the disabled groups
is lack of training facilities to enable the disability organizations
to fully provide HIV/AIDS related services.
The visually impaired, are also disadvantaged in the sense that
they cannot see the results whenever they are tested in a VCT,
when someone with visual impairments visits a health facility,
are the staff within the facility able to handle him/her? The
mentally challenged should be given equal access to HIV/AIDS services
within consent. There are risks issues involving the disabled
community sectors like the mentally challenged, deaf, deafblind
and the blind especially in this era in which there is a significant
rise in cases of rape.
Health facilites
Most of the health facilities are not built in a way that the
persons with physical challenged can access them freely; they
need someone to assist them in seeing the doctors.
The Deafblind are also a group that many people have not come
across but they are quite a number in Kenya and yet they have
an association, this is a group that uses tactile sign language
fully for their day to day activities. There should be medical
personnel responsible for providing public health service to each
and every disability within equity and effectiveness. The public
funding of disability organizations dealing with special groups
should be regular and constitutionally guaranteed. Service providers
in public health institutions targeting the special groups should
be given additional incentives to increase quality of service
and commitment.
Disability organizations in each constituency should be represented
in the constituency AIDS committees to enable more projects that
are disability friendly to be implemented. There need to be a
national AIDS disability policy programme to direct various quality
standards for service provision.
Adjustments
Adjustment of AIDs programmes to be disability friendly demands
more strategic partnerships that involves all from faith organizations
to government and the private sector. Management of HIV/AIDS among
the PWDs can be achieved if the society starts by integrating
them into social life. It begins by de-stigmatising disability.
Only then can we share PWDs pain living with infection of the
pandemic.
Category: Health
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