Disability spiral

Following the case studies looking at longer term health conditions and disability, Dorothy Boggs (LSHTM) explores the broader links among health, disability and poverty and presents the ‘Disability spiral.’

In this video, she describes the wider pathways between poor health and disability and how this is impacted by poverty. The concept of the ‘Disability spiral’ is presented as a way to conceptualise and visualise the pathways among various factors impacting health, disability and poverty. She presents examples of the downwards and upwards Disability spiral through case stuy examples of a woman with an intellectual disability and Joseph, the third individual case study who is an older man from Cameroon.

What are your thoughts about the Disability spiral? Can you apply the disability spiral concept to our two other individual case studies, Santhi and Maria’? Perhaps you have experiences that relate to the downwards or upwards disability spiral? Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments area below and, in the following Step, you will take a quiz covering the main topics that we discussed this week.