An Obvious Disability

Sometimes, when interviewing a person with an obvious disability, professionals assume it is more polite to ignore crutches, missing limbs, wheelchairs, or even canes indicating blindness. However, as stated earlier with regard to race and culture, asking directly about the “difference” is usually welcomed. Such questions as “Have you used a wheelchair all your life, or is it a more recent addition?” can open the door to a candid discussion of the disability.

Facing and managing a disability affect all areas of an individual’s life. However, too often, mental health professionals without rehabilitation training do not know how to calibrate the presence of the disability. The disability is either treated as the de?ning feature of the individual, overshadowing all else, or it is ignored; ignoring a disability implies that it really should not have any direct impact on the emotional and interpersonal functioning of the individual.

Men who have accepted their disabilities or chronic conditions often have adopted a new set of values that replace the dominant male values in society. This process may take a good deal of time, depending upon the man’s special circumstances, personality, and social situation.

-A Man’s Guide to Coping with Disability

The Religiously Committed

The challenge of ministry is to help people in very concrete situations-people with illnesses or in grief, people with physical or mental handicaps, people suffering from poverty and oppression, people caught in the complex networks of secular or religious institutions-to see and experience their story as part of God’s ongoing redemptive work in the world.