The disability process: Contributions of service agencies to client disability

A larger issue is considered, “The Disability Process,” in which certain characteristics of organizations and institutions, impinging on vulnerable personalities, can be seen to contribute to the development and persistence of disability.

Abstract

Our efforts to understand why some patients admitted to our psychiatric hospital service responded well to treatment while other, seemingly similar, patients responded poorly and with much residual disability, led us earlier to the idea of the “Illness Process,” a series of steps leading from subjective distress (anxiety and depression) to the stress-reducing emergence of “sanctioned disability.” The “Illness Process” seemed to arise from the interplay of personality attributes and situational demands. In this paper we consider a larger issue, “The Disability Process,” in which certain characteristics of organizations and institutions, impinging on vulnerable personalities, can be seen to contribute to the development and persistence of disability.