IMPROVING HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY

Abstract

Disability may be defined as negative interactions between the functional impairments of people and their environment, with problematic consequences. People with disabilities often experience difficulties in their daily lives, and are limited in their activities and social participation, and comprise 15% of the global population with a minimum estimated 1 billion. The number of people with disabilities increased every year in Taiwan from 3.8% in 2003 to 4.6% in 2011. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is the promulgated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 to describe health and disability at both the individual and societal level. The ICF system provides an excellent scientific approach to collecting reliable statistics on disabled populations. In 2007, Taiwan legislated a constitutional amendment known as the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act. Since July 2012, the act has mandated that the assessment of individual eligibility for disability benefits should be based on the ICF framework. Nowadays, nearly 700,000 persons with disability get their social welfare service and benefits through the newly implemented ICF system. The specific aims of this speech were to: 1) describe the implementation process of the ICF system; 2) compare the differences between the former and present disability systems; 3) analyze the advantage of the ICF disability system for persons with disability. Proceeding of Surabaya International Health Conference