Coping in Mitchell's Plain: A Qualitative Analysis of a Group of Handicapped Elderly in the Community

Abstract

This is a qualitative (or health-orientated quality) analysis of a group of 9 handicapped elderly people, all with locomotor disabilities, living in a specific community. It shows that the rehabilitative medical method whereby these patients go to a health centre to receive rehabilitative intervention from medical staff who do not personally go to the environment from which their patients come, is insensitive and inappropriate to the individual's needs. This small group illustrates how they live and cope with multiple handicaps in their home environment. All 9 had 3 or more impairments leading to a range of disabilities with different needs. The restrictive, overcrowded environment complicates conventional mobility methods for independence in and around the home; this in turn leads to greater dependence on their care-givers.