According to American Disability Act (ADA), disability is more of a legal term than medical, and it defines a person with a disability to be one who has a mental or physical impairment that results in them not being able to engage in normal life activities. These normal life activities include; the ability to breath, hears, walk, see, learn, perform manual tasks, work, and read. Disability is a large multifaceted and complex issue facing most people today, and one cannot readily define it. As a result, it becomes difficult for the government and societies to meet the needs of disabled persons. Various models of disability exist to help in understanding disability, and they include; the social model, medical, moral, and rehabilitation model. In the medical model, holders view disability as a problem of the person resulting from physical impairment, trauma, diseases, or any other health condition. These conditions limit a person’s ability to function normally prompting them to seek sustained medical care from professionals.

The social model of disability holds that society is responsible for disabled persons, and hence it is socially constructed. Unlike the medical model, the disabled individual is not accountable for his or her disability, but instead, it encompasses a complex of conditions which the social environment creates. Thus, the management of disability requires a collective social action involving people in the community. The moral model views disability as a result of sin and shame that results from the evil acts of the parents or practices of witchcraft. The rehabilitation or professional model sees disability as a problem that requires improvement with a professional. In this case, a professional follows the procedure of identifying health defects and their limitations and takes the necessary action to improve the health of the disabled person.

Illness and disability are words used to describe and understand a patient’s experience. An illness is a disease condition or sickness. It can be acute such as a cold or a flue which happens quickly and ends fast. Other illnesses are chronic like cancer or diabetes as they take a long time or a lifetime to cure. A disability, on the other hand, a problem that can be physical or mental that a person can acquire from an illness or born with it. Disability makes it difficult for one to perform normal daily activities. An illness is not a disability, but a point when it reaches a point where a person’s body cannot engage in something healthy, and then it becomes a disability.

Human settlement is primarily divided into two categories; rural and urban-based on development, population density, education, employment, social amenities, and health disparities. While the rate of urbanization and growth is high in urban areas, rural communities tend to have low levels of urbanization and industrialization. Another distinct difference between urban and rural communities is that there is a high population density in urban areas compared to rural areas due to the out-migration of young adults. Urban areas contain cities and towns and life is fast and complicated; everyone is always on the move. Rural areas, on the other hand, have villages and markets and everyone lives a slow and relaxed life. Poverty is high in rural areas compared to urban due to out-migration of young adults, immigration of older persons from the cities, and gaining-in-place. There also exists a huge health disparity between urban and rural communities. Rural residents tend to be less educated, older, lack health insurance and have inadequate access to health care compared to urban areas.

Access to health care is an essential need for everyone, but for people living in rural areas, their perception of health care and structural factors such as location affects their access. Structural barriers include those factors that an individual cannot personally control them. For example, most rural people explain lengthy time required for them to see a professional and barriers such as availability where health facilities are located in far places where people find it difficult to access. There is also a lack of transportation such as bus fare to take the sick in rural areas to the hospital. Pregnant women especially experience this problem during times of delivery when they are dependent on transportation to access health care. There are also personal factors that inhibit an individual from seeking health care. They include; an individual’s negative perception of health care providers, fear and lack of trust in the system. Some even have culturally accepted attitudes such as belief in their healers which limit their access to health care.

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?