Question Time is a series in which we open up the floor to you, commenters. We invite you to share as you feel comfortable.
What are some really odd questions you’ve been asked about being disabled?[1. This could be… interesting.]
Daily Archives: 8 February, 2010
Newsflash: Poverty is Bad for Your Health
A recent study from Columbia University found that of all the health factors they measured, poverty had the greatest negative impact on health. The other factors they looked at included smoking, obesity, lack of health insurance, and binge drinking, all of which had a less significant impact on health outcomes than living in poverty. Poverty, defined as living below 200% of the United Stated Federal Poverty Level, was determined to take away 8.2 years of health, meaning poor people have 8.2 fewer years in which they are healthy than someone above 200% of the FPL (This is a standard measure of health burden, used by the WHO.) We should also be explicit that when we talk about poverty we talk about race – over 50% of black and Latino young adults live in poverty, compared to less than 30% of white young adults.
To which I respond, well, YES, clearly. But you would never know these things from the way we talk about health. Think about how many public health programs are focused directly on the spectre of obesity. There’s PE programs and school activity policies, public education campaigns (usually involving TV ads) to tell people to spend less time watching TV, there’s calorie labeling requirements and scolding people to go to their farmer’s markets and taxes on soda or foods with trans fat. Some of those policies may have worth, but their goal of eliminating TEH FAT ZOMG and thereby solving the health crisis is clearly misdirected. Even worse are the articles and attitudes engendered by this focus on obesity as a health issue, like this recent article in the LA Times, because they imply that a systemic issue like the health care problem can be resolved by individuals changing their lifestyles, rather than by systemic change on a much broader level.
The effect of poverty on health has been clearly documented. People who live in poverty are more likely to have asthma and diabetes. They’re way more likely to be exposed to parasites like toxocariasis, cysticercosis, and toxoplasmosis, which can have significant physical and neurological effects including seizures and developmental delays. They’re five times more likely to be exposed to lead paint as children. They’re twice as likely to have untreated cavities, which can lead to heart disease or infection and even death. This all means that from the beginning, even from birth, people living in poverty are more likely to develop or acquire a disability or chronic health condition.
It would seem, then, that addressing poverty in order to prevent those negative health outcomes would be a public health priority. But it really isn’t – poverty programs are rarely described as health programs. When a politician starts talking about welfare, they’re talking about cash payments to help parents raise their kids, to preserve and support families. They don’t talk about how assisting a family out of poverty will make that whole family healthier, and less in need of health care. And addressing the negative health effects of poverty – safely removing all the lead paint, preventing slum housing conditions like cockroach infestations and mold that contribute to asthma, get them some access to dental care – would have an enormously beneficial effect on hundreds of thousands of individuals and on the health care system as a whole. However, addressing the systemic effects of poverty isn’t nearly as easy as shaming “the fatties” and slapping some calorie numbers on menus.
This is especially galling because there is so much overlap between the community of PWDs and people in poverty. A recent study found that almost half of working-age adults who experience poverty for at least a 12-month period have one or more disabilities. People with disabilities account for a larger share of those experiencing poverty than people in all other minority, ethnic and racial groups combined and are even a larger group than single parents. Families with more than one member with a disability are even more likely to be living in poverty. There are two things going on here. First, people who live in poverty are more likely to be or become PWDs, partly because of the health factors discussed above. But also, PWDs are more likely to live in poverty, partly because of the cost of health care.
All of this suggests that our conversations about health care need to include ideas about addressing poverty and that our work on poverty issues has special effects on health and disability. Hurrah for intersectionality!
Recommended Reading for February 9th
Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.
Unreality Shout: Disability abuse- ignored and condoned. Have we learnt nothing from the Deaths of the Pilkingtons? [You can find video and a transcript here.]
On Big Brother’s Big Mouth Vinnie Jones describes Davina McCalls’ walk as being like a “retard” then gets up and demonstrates what he means. Awful complaints will follow.Jones will be forced to publicly apologise for his vile behaviour using the same word and gestures that were used against Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter which drove them to their deaths. Davina will lose her contracts and probably be removed from Comic Relief which sponsors projects for disabled people for her blatant disablism.
Sadly no.
The audience laughed as did Davina who then repeated the word.
NO action was taken.
No apology made.
stevenf.com: Shutup.css [works for sites and comment systems like Digg, Disqus, Youtube, Slashdot, CBC, CNet, Reddit, WaPo, Globe and Mail]:
shutup.css is a custom user stylesheet that can be applied to your browser to hide comments on many popular web sites without user intervention.
Turner and Kowalski: WordPress is killing me!!!
I really appreciate that WordPress offers a fuckton of useful features, but they’re really crap at explaining them which makes WordPress kind of inaccessible.
New York Times: For Some Survivors, Polio Won’t Fade Into the Past
But Ms. Lloyd [a historian] soon found that polio’s past was not dead and gone. It was not even past. In all the early interviews, people talked about an after-echo legacy of the disease called post-polio syndrome that had come back to hit them in their 60s and 70s. […]
[Dr Jacquelin Perry’s] conclusion about polio and age is that the people who worked hardest to overcome disability have in many cases been hit hardest by its second-wave attack, as over-used muscles and nerves gave out after decades of strain. Her observation is backed up by numerous studies.
“It’s overuse,” Dr. Perry said in a telephone interview. “The people who tried hardest to be normal, and pushed hardest, have been hit more with post-polio.”
KuwaitSamachar.com: Disabled citizens bring honor to Kuwait
[Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and State Minister for Development and Housing Affairs] indicated that enforcing the disability rights legislation is the best way of supporting this segment of society, saying that the new law will help to support the disabled socially and in terms of sports and leisure activities.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad asserted that the new legislation will ensure disabled citizens’ rights, and help them in becoming vital components of society, reported Al-Watan. The minister congratulated disabled citizens on the enforcement of the new legislation, acknowledging the cabinet’s and parliament’s roles in achieving this goal.
Abubakarr Messeh Kamara at Cocorioko.net: Time for Sierra Leone’s youths to put their case forward
My question is: where will the youth be to put their case across? I believe the Secretary General’s visit will mean nothing to Sierra Leone unless the youth (the future of Sierra Leone) are given the opportunity to be heard loud and clear on pertinent issues that affect their wellbeing. […]
Poor health services continuing to endanger the life of the youth; with limited access to care, medication and so on. The country’s HIV/AIDS rate remains high particularly amongst the youth. Unfortunately, most of the doctors have indulged in to the practice of operating their own private surgeries where more money could be incurred at the expense of saving the lives of the poor in public hospitals. I believe that a combination of factors such as proper health policy, free health service, care and education can help in the fight against diseases.
The issue of disabled persons rights and the huge number of street children sleeping in market stall is nothing good to talk about. The 2007 Child Rights Act and the 2009 Disability Rights Act have only become a black and white paper in the shelves of policy makers. I think we are failing in our responsibility.