Survey of disability, accessibility and utilization of rehabilitation service, in a community of Kano State: North Western Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: Disability is both a cause and a consequence of poverty, reducing access to education, employment, opportunities and resources. Poor people without disabilities can develop them, due to inadequate nutrition, unclean environments, disease, insufficient health services and poor infrastructure. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of disability, accessibility and utilization of rehabilitation service, in gwan-gwan community. Method: Eighty six (86) people participated in the study, the participants were choosen using multistage sampling technique, questionnaire was administered to the subjects, information about disability, type of disability, access and utilization of rehabilitation services was collected and analysed descriptively. Result: Findings of the study showed that majority of the participants are disabled (55.7%), back has the highest form of disability (26.1%), they don't have access to rehabilitation centres (63.6%) and also they don't utilize rehabilitation service(78.4%). Conclusion: It was therefore concluded that majority of people of this community are living with disability with lack of accessibility to rehabilitation centers and less utilisation of rehabilitation services. It is therefore, recommended that government of Nigeria should lead the way in making accessibility of rehabilitation centres a priority. This can be achieved by enacting laws which protect the accessibility rights of people living with disability.

Self-Awareness Of Persons With Disabilities To Carry Out Rehabilitation, Increasing Participation And Rehabilitation Needs

“…To reinforce that self-awareness cannot stand alone as a support for rehabilitation, external support is needed within the person. Several studies (Sumaila et al, 2018) also state that the role of accessibility and understanding of rehabilitation still needs to be improved to support the implementation of rehabilitation. Therefore, an analysis of the factors that affect the implementation of this rehabilitation is still very much needed.…”

“…More than 60% of persons with disabilities are not aware of the availability of rehabilitation services and lack selfawareness (Srivastava, Khan, Pandey, Pillai, & Bhavsar, 2014). Strengthening rehabilitation services (Kumar, Roy, & Kar, 2012) through the enactment of laws protecting accessibility rights (Sumaila, Abdullahi, & Shittu, 2018), as well as means of interaction through architectural behavioral approaches for persons with disabilities (Kusumaputri, Setyaningsih, & Mustaqimah, 2014).…”