Medical Model vs. Social Model

What is the medical model vs. social model? I thought we’d look at these terms, because while they are often used in medical and social work communities not everyone knows what they are who hasn’t had that training.

Salmon Lake, Ontario

The medical model was centered on the belief that the best way to help people who were disabled was to focus on the changes the individual could make to “improve” their life. That improvements in their physical health, would mean improvements in their life. Now, I think that most people would think this was true to a degree. For instance, in the medical model, you might say that an Autistic person who is struggling with sensory inputs could wear headphones and dark glasses to allow them to go into places like workplaces and grocery stores. This gives the individual control to change their circumstances. In a medicalized system, the person should do whatever they can to make their disability disappear or lessen to “improve” function. The “cure” is to change the individual.

The social model of disability says that disability actually comes from society itself. That the person’s condition only becomes disabling because of the world we live in. This model would say that society ought to adjust to the disabled person to allow them maximum functioning. The responsibility is removed from the individual sphere and given to everyone. Using the example above, this means that the grocery store and workplace might turn their lights down a bit, and cut out the music to make things more comfortable. This model centers society as where the changes should occur. The “cure” is to change the world around the person.

While I love the idea of the social model, and support it’s tenets, I have to acknowledge that we’re a long way from those ideals. We’ve gotten better about physical access to buildings (particularly in Ontario which has mandated improvements) but there are still significant gaps in other forms of access.

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