Handicap International experience in Afghanistan - CBM

These dimensions contribute to the overall well being of the person. It is obvious that persons with physicaldisability do seem to be more easily accepted, as they can express their needs more easily. For other categories,it is challenging to do this; as a result they may remain isolated.Reacting Violently to Outside SurroundingsThe violent attitudes that may take place in reaction to outside pressure are described by five specific itemssuch as: fits, physically violent behaviour towards others, verbally violent behaviour towards others, violentbehaviour towards oneself, fainting or passing out. These types of behaviour are closely related to the previoussection. They are often a result of frustration linked to the fact of not being able to get the message through:not being able to make oneself understood.Figure 11: Distribution of Persons with Disability Having ViolentReactions According to Main Types of Disability1009080706050403020100• Physical Disability • Sensorial Disability • Mental Disability• Associated Disability • Epilepsy/ SeizuresEpisodes of FitsPhysical ViolenceTowards OthersVerbal ViolenceTowards OthersSelf ViolenceFainting/PassingOutIt is clear that persons with physical and sensorial disability have far less violent reactions towards othersor towards themselves. It is the persons who have associated disability, who report a high proportion ofindividual episodes such as fits and fainting as well as violence towards oneself. On dimensions of violencetowards others, in addition to the associated disabilities there are persons with mental forms of disability. Asexpected, persons with epilepsy and other seizures report having experienced episodes of fits and faintingover the last six months.Communication DifficultiesIn order to assess the difficulty to communicate, six abilities are considered: “remember things”, “talk toothers”, “understand what people say”, “make oneself understood”, “hearing clearly”, and “seeing clearly”.Persons with sensorial, mental or associated disabilities are a significantly higher proportion to reportproblems regarding communication when compared to persons with physical disabilities. It is noticeablethat persons with mental forms of impairment (including associated disabilities) are a considerably higherproportion having difficulties related to memory. A majority of them have trouble talking to others. Personswith sensorial impairments having problems related to memory are probably older people, challenged withshort term memory loss.To summarise, when comparing the responses by categories of disability, it appears that the persons withmental disabilities and those with associated disabilities have the greatest difficulty, especially with regardto memory: 85.2% persons with mental disabilities and 74.1% persons with associated disabilities havememory difficulties. Similarly, persons with epilepsy/seizures report the least difficulty, with the exception,once more, of memory.Persons withsensorial, mentalor associateddisabilities area significantlyhigher proportionto report problemsregardingcommunicationand difficultiesrelated to memorywhen comparedto personswith physicaldisabilitiesThe Health Picture23