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Talking Mats\u00a0considers both health and social aspects when it is used to include people\u00a0in their care planning. \u00a0Lots of interesting comments are made by course participants on the forum in our online training course.\u00a0 Annemarie, who works as an agency carer visiting clients in their own homes posted her thoughts about the social model of disability<\/p>\n
\u00a0Remembering the person behind the condition<\/strong><\/p>\n In my experience, society is fixated on the medical model, the ‘what’s wrong’ approach. Whilst the medical model is clearly a valuable and required tool, it often leads to labels that individuals are then lumbered with, such as, ‘she has dementia’, ‘she is visually impaired’, ‘he’s deaf’ or has a ‘leaning disability’. Taking this approach overlooks the person behind the ‘condition’ and so can restrict inclusion. \u00a0One example could be an individual with dementia being unable to make everyday choices about seemingly mundane issues such as what to wear that day. Using a medical model, a carer may be aware of the clients difficulties and make choices for them, whereas using the social model approach enables the carer to see beyond the condition and fully include the client, allowing them to be part of the decision making process for themselves. A second example could be a person with a communication disorder such as Asperger’s Syndrome. Access to work could be severely restricted using a medical model as the pragmatic manifestation of this condition may well exclude a person from seeking certain types of employment. Promoting the use of a social model would ensure work colleagues understood the possible limitations of the condition and ensure adequate support networks were in place. The social model attempts to embrace a person\u2019s difference and raises awareness within society of individual needs that will facilitate inclusion into all aspects of life. <\/em><\/p>\n The WHO ICF -World Health Organisation International Classification Framework of Functioning, Disability and Health (2001, 2007b) aims to merge the medical and social model, encouraging professionals to think not only of the persons health condition and resulting impairment, but the impact this has on the persons participation and activities.\u00a0 It captures the full complexity of people\u2019s lives, including environmental and social factors and can be applied over different cultures<\/p>\n The Talking Mats Health and Well- being resource is based on the WHO ICF and supports a person to reflect and express their view on various aspects of their lives.\u00a0 Using the Health and Well being \u00a0resource supports workers to remember the person behind the condition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Talking Mats\u00a0considers both health and social aspects when it is used to include people\u00a0in their care planning. \u00a0Lots of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,51,9,15,17,10,47],"tags":[18,48,52,11,16],"class_list":["post-5866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-dementia","category-icf","category-learning-disability","category-participation","category-personalisation","category-self-directed-care","tag-participation","tag-self-directed-care","tag-dementia","tag-personalisation","tag-learning-disability-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n