Aging Among Women with Disabilities

Document from the year 2009 in the subject Nursing Science - Miscellaneous grade: B The University of Texas at Austin language: English abstract: No matter how much I was admired by others or by myself there was still much more I had to face. My Polio and My Accident were not just my past; they were part of my present and my future (Zola 1982 p.84).There are 53.9 million Americans with a disability (Jans & Stoddard 1999); 28.6 million are women and their numbers are increasing (Gerschick 2000). The increase is partly due to a longer lifespan for persons with disabilities which is most pronounced among those aging with a disability since childhood (Campbell & Barras 1999; Campbell Sheets & Strong 1999). For example the average life span has increased for the nearly 700000 with cerebral palsy and the almost 1 million polio survivors (Campbell 1998). Regretfully their increased life span has been accompanied by health and social problems (Campbell; Harrison & Stuifbergen 2001).Women with disabilities experience high rates of poverty negative stereotypes high rates of institutionalization (G. Frank 2000) and increased secondary conditions and co-morbidities with aging (Harrison & Stuifbergen 2001). These problems are costly to the individual the family and society. The health risks associated with aging with a disability have prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to include the removal of health disparities amongst people with disabilities as one of its 2010 goals which follows the goal to remove the disparities associated with gender (U.S. DHHS 2000).The research available on aging and disability in women has focused primarily upon aging as a process of biological decline. There is little understanding of the