The influence of physical disability on the livelihoods of the disabled persons and their families in the Techiman South Municipality-brong ahafo region of Ghana

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Date
November, 2016
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Abstract
Livelihoods can help individuals and their families to secure the necessities of life and improve their economic and social situations. It is therefore imperative to support disabled persons and their families through community- based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes and other livelihoods components to reduce the effects of the disability. To reduce the influence of the disability on the disabled persons and their families, it is essential to provide the needed mechanisms to promote the livelihoods of physically disabled person and their family members. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of physical disability on the livelihoods of disabled persons and their families at Techiman South Municipality in Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. The study aims to identify how physically disabled persons and their family members manage the influence of the disability on their livelihoods and also examine mechanisms needed to promote the livelihoods of physically disabled persons. This study adopted the qualitative research methods and was limited to the Techiman South Municipality as a case study. The researcher adopted the non-probability sampling procedure, that is, purposive sampling, in the data collection. The study focused on physically disabled persons and their family members as participants. The instrument used was interview schedules. The data was obtained by interviewing 9 physically disabled persons and 9 family members, one each from a disabled person’s family. The data were analyzed directly by performing thematic analysis. The study concluded that, physical disability adversely affects physically disabled persons and their family members’ livelihoods. The major impacts on the disabled persons were low income level, limitation on employment opportunities, lack of career development, and lack of access to credit and effects on personal well-being. Also, the influence on family members such as financial challenges and emotional stress were also identified as a major problem. Another key finding from the study was that, both the physically disabled persons and their family members developed coping mechanisms to handle the effects on their livelihoods. Physically disabled persons adopted financial management and membership of Disabled Persons’ Organizations as mechanisms to manage the influence on their livelihoods while, financial management, savings and collective effort of family members were used by family members to mitigate livelihoods challenges on their livelihoods. In view of these findings, there is the need to develop mechanisms to promote the livelihoods of physically disabled persons. Likewise, family members of disabled persons of working age should be assisted and encouraged to develop skills and start or return to work to generate income to reduce financial burden.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Community Health, College of Health Sciences In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Disability, Rehabilitation and Development),
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