Challenges Of People With Multiple Sclerosis And Cerebral Palsy In The Job Market

Findings

Discuss about the Challenges of People with Multiple Sclerosis and Cerebral Palsy in The Job Market.

People with disability are normally considered unable participants in the job market be it as a volunteer or a paid worker. They are often denied the chance to participate in existing employment opportunities due to the employer analogy that these people will be a liability to their organizations. These adverse barriers impact negatively to the livelihood of people with disability. The discrimination, stigma, stereotypes, and prejudice at the workplace not only lower their morale but also lead to quitting or resigning from their jobs (Ruhindwa, Randal & Cartmel, 2016, pg.4).

Nevertheless, some people living with disabilities to participate in the workforce and make valuable contributions as far as economic development and personal empowerment is concerned. Since everyone aspires to be economically independent, people with disability cannot afford to be left behind (Bhattacharye & Long, 2015). This study unravels the challenges that people who suffer from multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy go through in the workforce. Additionally, it explains on possible interventions that can be followed to improve their outcomes and productivity in their respective organizations. It highlights on supportive techniques and rehabilitation practices that could help boost the way of life of people with multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a lasting neural illness that affects young people in their prime life of work. It is a disorder that is mainly associated with a heavy burden on the brain as well as a decreased ability of an individual to remain working. It mainly affects the central nervous system that comprises of the brain and the spinal cord (Bode, Schwartz, Quaranto & Volmer, 2012, p.1626).

A person suffering from multiple sclerosis suffers a lot of challenges in his or her central nervous system. The immune system of the body turns against its own host by attacking the myelin coating which is a substance that protects the nerve fibers. These attacks by the immune system end up damaging the myelin hence disrupting message passing to the brain via the spinal cord. Mostly, the messages are slowed down, distorted or they end up jumping to another nerve fiber.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an illness that is referred to as an individual condition. It is known to affect people differently. This unique property of this kind of defect is that people get affected with respect to how the illness attacks their brain and the spinal cord. There exist very many different symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis that one individual can have all of them. Mostly, people are diagnosed with a relapse-remitting syndrome which is a form of multiple sclerosis. This is an attack of multiple symptoms of MS and can last for days, weeks or even months. The relapse is followed by a time of remission where the earlier symptoms improve and even go away with time. According to Bode et al. (2012, p.1630), the period of remission can last for months or even years.

Discussions of Solutions

Another physical disability that affects people and lowers their economic productivity in the job market is cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a collective that is used to refer to a group of chronic conditions that affect muscle contractions and body movements. It is caused by damage to specific areas of the brain that can occur specifically during the development of the baby before birth or during the infancy period. Therefore, the defects do not do not occur due to muscle problems or poor development of nerves. The poor development of motor parts in the brain affects the brain’s ability to effectively control movements of muscles hence hindering mobility and affecting the posture of the baby. Therefore, cerebral is the brain while palsy is muscle weaknesses or poor control of the muscles hence hindering movement (Derose, 2014).

Cerebral palsy is mostly a non-progressive ailment but other conditions might develop over time that comprises of muscle spasticity which can worsen the situation over time. It is a defect that is mainly caused by the inability to effectively control the mobility parts of the body especially the muscle movement and coordination by the brain. Cerebral palsy causes several conditions depending on the areas damaged in the brain. These conditions are muscle tightness, gait disturbance involuntary movements, swallowing difficulties, and problems in speech especially in constructing continuous sentences. Other effects that cerebral palsy can cause include abnormal sensation, sight impairment, perception, hearing mental retardation and seizures. These conditions lead to difficulties during feeding, inability to control the bowel region, problems during breathing due to postural difficulties, skin problems caused by pressure sores, and the inability to effectively teach (Schwartz et al, 2013, p.976).

There are four types of cerebral palsy namely spastic cerebral palsy, ataxic cerebral palsy, athetoid cerebral palsy and mixed cerebral palsy. Spastic cerebral palsy is where people have very stiff and rigid movements because their muscles are very tight. Hand grip and other mobility functions are difficult to control. This type is common in the United States especially to people who suffer from cerebral palsy (Whidden, 2013).

Ataxic cerebral palsy is another type that leads to a poor coordination of movements and low muscle tones. It causes shakiness or trembling during writing when turning pages or during typing b using a keyboard. Normally, unsteady walking, as well as poor balancing, demand extra brain concentration and more time to effectively complete movements.

Athetoid cerebral palsy is a condition that involves a mixed muscle tone. For instance, involuntary movements always lead to movements in other parts of the body such as the arms, face or other upper body parts. Sitting upright, maintaining postures and walking requires extra work and more concentrations. About twenty-five percent of people with cerebral palsy have athetoid cerebral palsy. Finally, mixed cerebral palsy is where the muscle tone is too high in other muscles and too low in others. This muscle tone difference is what is referred to as mixed. The mixed cerebral palsy affects one-fourth of all the people with CP (Whidden, 2013).

Workers having cerebral palsy always suffer from vision and hearing impairments that can compromise or affect their outcomes especially their productivity in their duty execution. They have challenges in controlling eye movements as well as having problems in maintaining their visual contact. Additionally, hearing impairments affects how these people communicate with their colleagues. These continuous conditions and challenges ought to be looked into by the employers to ensure that they assist their employees where possible to enable them to execute their mandate without leading to losses in the company (Dufton, 2017).  

Other challenges that workers with cerebral palsy suffer from include learning disabilities and other intellectual challenges. This condition affects the workforce tremendously since an individual may not be able to learn difficult or specific tasks that may be paramount in the execution of his or her duties. The inability to read or perform specific arithmetic tasks that demand regular learning due to the several changes in an organization hinders the performance of disabled individuals especially in case of people with cerebral palsy because of the adverse damages to particular parts of the brain (Dickey, 2017).

To address these challenges in the organizations, employers ought to understand and specifically know the kind of problem that their employees are going through. To make these possible, employers and other affected individuals must put themselves in the shoes of these individuals so as to understand primarily their challenges and come up with effective ways to assist them to execute their duties at ease. Generally, it is evident that everyone aspires to be able to work and earn a living so as to gather for their economic challenges and gather for themselves and their family at large. Every person irrespective of their disability dreams of being independent in all possible ways (Holland, 2017).

People with cerebral palsy have a certain degree of limitation or variance compared to other people without a disability.  These individuals need accommodation between their colleagues to enable them to perform their jobs at ease. The accommodation ideas range and differ with respect to the type of cerebral palsy or condition an individual may be suffering from. Daily activities of people with disabilities must be in a close proximity to restrooms and washrooms. Organizations should create workstations that allow easy access to restrooms if they don’t have restroom features. Moreover, the workstation ought to be rearranged to allow people reach items easily (Scroxton, 2017). For instance, people with cerebral palsy have challenges in muscle control and mobility; therefore, the shelves in the workstations should be lowered so that they can reach their items easily. Additionally, their desks and chairs must be designed professionally to guarantee comfort which is directly proportional to the performance and success of the worker.

Worker motor impairment of the disabled individuals can be addressed by the employer by ensuring that pathways and hallways are unobstructed so as not to hinder this person from accessing their workplace. Workplaces must be designed in close proximity to office machines or other machines that these individual use while working. Cognitive impartments, speech and hearing problems can be solved by introducing software programs that can help the employees in word predictions, editing and for grammar checks. Additionally, computers can be used to create instances of reminders so as to eliminate instances of forgetting assignments (Whidden, 2013).

People with multiple sclerosis also need to be assisted and the challenges they face in the job market need to be looked into in the job market. Many people with this condition do not consider themselves as disabled. However, this disability has been clearly defined and highlighted in the equity law, equity act and the disability discrimination act of Northern Ireland. Therefore, it is unlawful and punishable to discriminate against an individual suffering from multiple sclerosis. Therefore, it is paramount for every organization to derive ways to enable their employees to adjust to the needs and demands of their job (MS Society, 2015).

Employers must protect their employees from internal or external discriminations. Most people with physical challenges normally get harassed by unwarranted comments or jokes that are made about their symptoms or how they walk, talk, or how they execute their duties (Lee, 2017). Additionally, employers are not supposed to favor them because of their disabilities. This also is deemed as discriminations. Therefore, a legal way must be followed in dealing with disables individuals in accordance with the safety and health laws.

Establishing and improving dialogues with people with multiple sclerosis is important in every organization.  It is paramount for an employer to know the concerns of their employees especially to know that they are going through so as to determine the best way of helping them. Assumptions must be avoided at all costs especially when trying to determine what duties your employee can do and what duties the employee cannot do. The employee may be able to execute his or her duties even after usually without the need of any additional support or care. Despite the fact that multiple sclerosis effects become worse over time, it is wrong to make a comparison between people with multiple sclerosis and your employee since everyone suffers differently (Raqqi, Covelli, Schiavolin,  Scaratti, Leonardi & Willems, 2016, p.938).

Normally, people tend to sympathize with people with disability. However, the emotional response is not always helpful compared to the support that can be given to the employees. Employer-employee conversations should be fostered in a manner that will boost trust hence encouraging opening up. For instance, it is advisable to arrange frequent meetings like quarterlies that is separate from performance review meetings so as to talk about how the employee’s multiple sclerosis is affecting the employee and to decide whether work adjustments are necessary. Creating policies and ways of how to record such discussions is also important for review in the future (Simonite, 2017, p.16).

Reasonable work adjustments are important as far as the employee performance is concerned. Working environments can be adjusted and rearrange to enable individuals to work with ease. In other circumstances, job rotations are also important especially when an employee suggests to be given lighter duties so as to avoid straining. The rights to adjustments are normally enshrined in equity laws though they also depend on the organization policies that may have been put in place (O’Mahony, 2017).

People with multiple sclerosis at times should be given flexible and reduced working hours with breaks in between to enable them to rest in case there is a need. Moreover, the workstations also should be moved closer to the toilets and washrooms just like the case of people with cerebral palsy.  The organization also should be flexible so as to be there for their employees especially when they have medical appointments. Resting also is also important and must be factored in the job market (AG, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, employers should follow legal procedures as well sticking to their professionalism to ensure that people with disabilities are assisted so as to improve their livelihood and comfort in the workplace. Moreover, people with disabilities must be given an opportunity to access improved healthcare services, rehabilitation, and social management and to be protected against any form of discrimination so as to enable them to achieve their dreams irrespective of their challenges (Ruhindwa, Randal, Cartmel, 2016).

Work environments also should be made accessible due to better hallways and spacious elevators that will enable people using assisted technology move easily. Supportive services and other cares should also be provided so as to minimize disruptions but to improve their productivity in all areas.  Flexible working hours also is a condition that organizations and employers must consider with the aim of giving their employees time to relax. Social protection schemes should also be bolstered and made available to the people with disability (PWD) especially in relation to their type of work.

References

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