Acquired disabilities could happen to anybody due to falls, traffic accidents and diseases. Korea, which is infamous for having the largest number of traffic accidents in the world, sees the occurrence of many cases of spinal disability and cerebral t...
Acquired disabilities could happen to anybody due to falls, traffic accidents and diseases. Korea, which is infamous for having the largest number of traffic accidents in the world, sees the occurrence of many cases of spinal disability and cerebral traumas due to traffic accidents.
Thus, unlike inborn disabled people, acquired disability-suffered people, who were once normal people, struggle to accept themselves as disabled people. After initial hospital treatment, they begin to fight with themselves miserably, and if they cannot stand physical ailments and psychological depressions, and thus cannot accept themselves, they may end up with committing suicide.
In this vein, this research sought to provide a momentum for acquired disability-suffered people to accept their disabilities and express their social needs, and to study their disability acceptance degree and needs. The research is summarized as follows.
First, there is no significant difference in disability acceptance between heavy acquired disability people and slight acquired disability people according to disability degree. Both heavily and slightly disabled people all accepted their disability, and expressed their future dreams and hopes. In light of this response, disabled people can keep themselves aloof from their anguishes over disability, they do not see things differently due to disability, and they consider it more important in life to be honest and have passion for work rather than to have physical ability.
However, considering that acquired disability-suffered people anguish over their disabilities, there is a need for them to have counselling after treatment. Disabled people should not be left accepting their disability and keeping it all to themselves, but medical and social welfare workers and social workers at regional welfare centers should get involved in this matter to provide sufficient counselling to help disabled people overcome their emotional problems.
Second, disabled people responded that they needed financial support in terms of economic needs since they had limited economic activities. Heavily disabled people made a strong request for providing measures to help some of their family members earn money for them, and also wanted to receive support for protective devices since they had inconvenience in moving.
They also wanted assistance in household work and from hospice workers through volunteer service arrangements, and heavily disabled people whose family members cannot always be together with them badly needed assistance from household helpers, and as such, policies should be implemented to provide helpers on pay basis.
Moreover, efforts should be made to develop programs through weekly protection centers and self-help gatherings to help disabled people's protectors release their stress, as well as to offer educational programs and events for their family members, thus enhancing the quality of services for disabled people.
Third, for their information needs, since disabled people collect information mainly from others, regional welfare centers and district administrative offices should endeavor to occasionally provide print and Internet-based information to disabled people who have registered with them. Measures should be worked out to continuously provide information-related education.
Even amid of seas of information, only limited information can be provided to heavily disabled people who have to be bed-ridden throughout their whole lives, and thus Internet-related education and computers should be provided urgently.
Fourth, both heavily and slightly disabled people all need economic and emotional assistance in terms of their social needs. Likewise, regional disabled people welfare centers should be more open for disabled people to get more assistance, and measures should be worked out for more moveable disabled people to visit welfare centers, while phone-based emotional support should be given to unmoveable disabled people.
On top of economic assistance for disabled people, efforts should be made to help them have the sense of being members of the community. In particular, unregistered home-ridden disabled people should be encouraged to be registered, and should be given detailed information on various services available.
Tailored services for disabled people should be provided by deploying social work specialists.