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Adjustment to disability
- Authors:
- COHEN Carol B, NAPOLITANO Donna
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work in Disability and Rehabilitation, 6(1/2), 2007, pp.135-155.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Two case examples are used to illustrate the adaptations and life choices that are needed to meet the psychological, social and developmental needs of people who become disabled, and to enhance their self-esteem. The first focuses on a 50 year-old woman who had been profoundly deaf since the age of two, and was unable to lip read. Although succeeding in life, marrying and having children, she had ongoing psychological problems that dated back to her mother’s denial of her disability. The second case focuses on a middle-aged woman rendered quadriplegic by a spinal cord injury in her late teens. Her experiences focus on personal humiliation and stereotyping, discrimination in education and employment, the financial costs involved in remaining independent and the practical difficulties of getting reliable help. Both adjustment stories highlight the importance of integrating an ecological or systems framework that emphasises the inter-relationships between biological, psychological, social, technological, cultural and political factors. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).