Social And Medical Model Of Disability

954 Words4 Pages
The social and medical models of disability. Introduction. "The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised. The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their merriments or differences "(Scope, nd).The social and medical model both have very different views on working with people with disabilities and it seems as thought the majority of people would agree with the social model .In this essay, I will discuss what the medical and social models believe,the importance of both the social and medical model, the disadvantages of both and my opinion on these models. The Medical model. The medical model is "disability located within the individual" (lecture notes,Suzanne Duggan 21/09/2016). The goal of the medical model is to come up with a "cure" which lets the person adapt to fit in with the world (new health guide,nd). Within the medical model people with disabilities are often placed in segregated services, such as 'special schools ', which could lead to them being isolated from the rest of the world. Some people feel as though the medical model has failed "because disabled people are not necessarily sick or cannot be improved by remedial treatment" ( akmhcweb, nd).The author of www.disability.ie claims that " The medical model can make disabled people less likely to challenge their exclusion from mainstream society", as they are so used to being segregated from the world they are unsure of how to integrate back