Physical Disabilities

Physical disabilities can be sensory, where there are problems with sight, hearing or speech, or they may impair motor function, so that movement is restricted or imprecise. Injuries may cause a disability, and disease such as a heart condition may also make normal exertion impossible. Some disabilities start at birth - congenital disabilities. Others are acquired during life. If you have a disability, it is almost certain that there are many others who do also. Most conditions have support groups or associations that have grown up relating to the problem. These groups may offer specialized help to minimize the effect of the condition.

Recently Answered

QWhat is the difference between paraplegia and quadriplegia?

2 Answers

A

A Jumo Health answered

Paraplegia is when people cannot feel or move their legs and feet due to a spinal cord injury. Paraplegia occurs after a spinal cord injury to the lower back, which prevents the brain from communicating with the parts of the body below the injury.

Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is when people cannot feel or move their arms and legs due to a spinal cord injury. Quadriplegia/tetraplegia occurs after a spinal cord injury to the neck or upper back, where the damage prevents the brain from communicating with the rest of the body.

See All 2 Answers
QWhat are the treatment options for speech impairments?

1 Answer

A

A Sigma Nursing answered

Treatment options for speech impairments will vary according to the specific kind and its cause. Speech impairments are frequently treated by speech pathologists, who can train your or your child's speech. If the condition is caused by another health problem, such as a hearing loss, a cleft palate, or a tumor, treatment for the underlying condition may be necessary to treat the speech impairment.
QHow are speech impairments diagnosed?

1 Answer

A

A Sigma Nursing answered

Children and adults who are suspected of having speech impairments will have their speech evaluated by a speech-language pathologist. Sometimes an exam that includes speech and language tests and a discussion of medical history with this expert is enough to diagnose a condition, while other times further testing into the causes of speech impairment is necessary. For instance, hearing tests may be performed to see if hearing loss is the cause of the impairment.
QWhat does vision loss mean for veterans?

1 Answer

A

A Challenge America answered

Vision loss means the lack of vision where it existed before. For many people, including war warriors and veterans, vision loss can happen quickly (called acute vision loss) or over a long time (called chronic vision loss). No matter how vision loss occurs, the results can be devastating, especially for veterans who lose their vision immediately from an explosion, car bomb or blast.

The loss of vision during combat is a major traumatic event. Even if the soldier is visually impaired and not blinded, there is still much grieving that must be done to move beyond the event to rehabilitation and restoration. Many believe that whether losing a limb by amputation or one’s vision through a blast or explosion, the soldier will go through the different stages written about by Dr. Kubler-Ross in her celebrated book on the stages of dying.

For example, the individual who loses vision may go through feelings of denial, blame, anger, sorrow and finally acceptance. Each one of the grieving stages takes time. Some soldiers pass quickly through the stages, while others may take days, weeks or perhaps months to reach acceptance.

Before rehabilitation can begin for someone with vision loss or legal blindness, a qualified physician (ophthalmologist) must evaluate visual acuity and visual system functioning to rule out the need for surgical or medical correction.

Resources for veterans with vision loss
There are many low vision resources that can help veteran’s complete daily activities and responsibilities. Low vision aids may include hand magnifiers, magnifying glasses, books with large print, talking computers and calculators and talking clocks and watches. Audiobooks allow veterans to enjoy hearing the classics or the latest bestselling novels.

For veterans with low vision, having good lighting nearby can make all the difference between functioning normally or functioning minimally. A bright light in the den may enable the person to read the newspaper. Stronger bulbs in the kitchen and bathroom can make activities of daily living (ADL) such as cooking, personal hygiene, bathing and dressing much easier.
QWhat is offered to veterans with low vision after combat?

1 Answer

A

A Challenge America answered

Operation Peer SupportIn the United States today there are around 160,000 veterans who are legally blind. When you combine the number of veterans with low vision, this total skyrockets to more than one million veterans with poor visual acuity. In addition, the Department of Defense reports that more than 13 percent of all wounded evacuees from Iraq have a serious eye injury or vision problem. Data show this is the highest percentage documented for any war in America’s history for which an accounting is available.

The VHA Optometry Service
The VHA Optometry Service provides many services to help veterans, including primary eye care and low vision assistance to Visual Impairment Center to the Optimize Remaining Sight (VICTORS) programs and Blind Rehabilitation Centers (BRCs). Helping veterans with visual impairment or blindness maintain independence is an important goal of VHA optometrists. They achieve this goal by goal setting, assessing problems and evaluating all specialized vision devices that are available to help veterans.

Vision loss has a dramatic impact on anyone’s life. Not only are there functional losses such as the ability to read or pay bills, but vision loss affects mobility, causing the person to lose the ability to drive or even take walks in the neighborhood. In addition, for veterans with multiple impairments, vision loss can make them unable to self-medicate with life-saving prescriptions necessary for survival.

During the VHA Optometry Service, optometrists evaluate the veterans’ vision as well as problems with glare and lighting. Then using low vision devices such as hand-held magnifying glasses and prismatic eyeglasses, the veteran may gain an ability to see better, function optimally and live independently again.

Operation Peer Support
Operation Peer Support, a new program of the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA), is committed to helping wounded soldiers with the process of recovery after a traumatic event that robbed them of eyesight. The BVA believes that just like the grief experienced after the loss of a loved one, blinded veterans must grieve over their loss of sight. Thus, the veterans attending the Blinded Veteran Association convention are encouraged to meet with other OIF and OEF veterans. It’s thought that war veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam may be among the few who really can relate to the young soldiers being wounded and losing vision in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the BVA is committed to helping the younger war veterans in many ways, they said their Field Service Program is the primary way to help service members and their young families during this time.
QHow long does speech therapy treatment last?

1 Answer

A

A Dr. Daniel R. Spogen, MD , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine

It is difficulty to say how long speech therapy treatment will last. Some problems can be fixed fairly quickly ( a few sessions) but some problems may take months to years. Speech problems with children often require months to treat whereas something acute, like a stroke, may not require a long duration of treatment.
QWhat is a speech pathologist?

1 Answer

A

A Dr. Daniel R. Spogen, MD , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine

A speech pathologist (or a speech-language pathologist) is a professional who is trained (master's or doctorate level) to diagnose and treat speech, language and swallowing disorders. A speech-language pathologist will typically use exercises and other physical means (rather than medications) to improve a person's speech, language and/or swallowing.
QWhat training is needed to become a speech pathologist?

1 Answer

A
A Dr. Daniel R. Spogen, MD , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine
To become a speech pathologist, the following training is needed:

bachelor's degree

master’s degree accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA)

supervised clinical hours (greater than 300 hours, some of these must be supervised)

one-year clinical fellowship (1260 hours of clinical practice)

After training to become a speech pathologist, the person must pass the Praxis exam and receive a certificate of clinical competence. Potentially, speech and language pathologists may need teaching certificates and appropriate licensing to find a job in the speech and language pathology field.
QWhat conditions are seen by a speech pathologist?

1 Answer

A
A Dr. Daniel R. Spogen, MD , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine
Speech pathologists work with people who have conditions that cause difficulty with speech (hearing/receiving information or speaking/expressing needs) and swallowing. Common conditions that lead to speech and swallowing difficulty include:

hearing loss (deafness or partial hearing loss, congenital or acquired)

speech impediments or stuttering

tic disorders

autism

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

stroke

traumatic brain injury

dementia

oral disease

dysphagia (difficulty swallowing; congenital or acquired)

odynophagia (pain with swallowing)
QHow does a speech pathologist help with stuttering?

1 Answer

A

A Dr. Daniel R. Spogen, MD , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine, Family Medicine

A speech pathologist can help with stuttering by detecting both the frequency of stuttering as well as the type of words a person stutters with. The speech pathologist is also trained to recognized coping behaviors that the person utilizes when a stutter is encountered. Frequent treatments include training patients to control and monitor speech rate and breathing, and utilizing short phrases and sentences. Frequently, people are able to improve upon this with increased rate of speech and longer phrases and sentences.