In Bowen, Havercamp, and Nye’s “A call to action: Preparing a disability-competent health care workforce”, from the Disability and Health Journal, the authors successfully illustrate two initiatives that would eliminate the failure of competence towards those who are disabled as well as their essential care. Being the largest minority group in the world, the authors of this article clearly understand the urgency of this issue. Bowen and the rest of the writers start by dissecting why the needs of those who are disabled aren’t met by evaluating the preconceived notion caretakers have towards them. It is stated that their misunderstanding is a result of a biased mindset, where caretakers believe those with disabilities have a lower quality of life and function and have low expectations for their health which results in less urgency towards proper care. We can see this same mindset in many forms, whether it attacks minorities due to their race, income, gender, and endless others. Bowen et al. state that disability training can address the improvement of accessible treatment and increase better communication and understanding. This will be successful IF there is a balance between intent and effect, where health care workers will have to be conscious of the similarity of their words and behavior, which leads to the authors’ two initiatives towards this issue.
The urgency of these initiatives also circles back to hopes of systematic change. The article mentions that the systematic organizational framework in this country has disrupted the development and growth of disability healthcare. The two initiatives given in this article to facilitate fair and accessible health care would establish learning objectives and core foundations for health care workers which would increase their understanding and urgency, as well as simply continuing education training and bettering it as a whole in hopes of competent health care for those with disabilities. These initiatives are set up by two frameworks, the Disability Competencies and the DCC (Disability Competenent Care). The Disability Competencies provides a set of skills and behaviors needed to provide accommodating health care towards those who are disabled. Through various studies, this framework was proven successful and applied to the full range of disabilities.The DCC offers structure in educating the health care workforce and addresses the patient as a person, not just by their disability.
Bowen et al. do not just analyze these initiatives and calculate their success and stability but recognizes the dire need for change at this very moment in time. The authors acknowledge that the incompetence seen is due to systematic instability and that their initiatives would develop a foundation for practical, real change. This mindset is crucial while tackling the unfair treatment of all minorities. The authors believe these initiatives need to be required and that healthcare licensure should be reevaluated the same way recruitment in the business workforce should. This adds to the understanding that this instability is systematic and has been seen repeated in different shapes and forms, usually all having similarities in oppression. It is safe to say that the authors are aware that using these tactics in other scenarios, letting go of assumptions, uplifting, and acknowledging those who are diverse would create small steps towards competent systematic change. If those who are meant to help a specific issue don’t, who will?
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