Ssa: 75 percent of disabilities are preventable

Laura Poy Solano

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, November 13, 2022, p. 13

In Mexico, 75 percent of disabilities are preventable, as they are associated with accidents or other risk factors, such as the consumption of certain medications, said Ricardo Cortés Alcalá, general director of Health Promotion of the Ministry of Health (Ssa). .

When participating in the fourth Inclusion Fair 2022 of the National System for the Integral Development of the Family, he highlighted that prevention It is the most effective action to reduce the chances of facing a disability throughout life..

It is estimated that 5.7 percent of the population (7 million 168 thousand 178 people) have a disability or mental condition. Of them, 41 percent reported – according to the 2020 Population and Housing Census – having difficulty walking, going up or down.

Almost a hundred exhibitors participated in the meeting, on the esplanade of the Monument to the Revolution, who offered recreational and sports activities to people with disabilities and their families.

Among them, inclusive tours of the National Museum of Art, chess workshops, skills and creativity, dance, games, which included soccer matches, as well as information modules on sexuality, open education models for attending high school and various therapies for rehabilitation.

Attendees at the fair highlighted that among the main problems they face is access to medical care (24 percent of this sector of the population is not affiliated with health services) and insertion in the labor market.

Monserrat is 25 years old and visually impaired. In 2021 she graduated as an accountant, but nobody wants to give me a job opportunity, even though I did internships and graduated with honors. In Mexico there is still a lot of discrimination. People believe that because you can’t see, hear, or have mobility problems, you can’t have the same opportunities as everyone else..

The young professional assures that spaces such as the Inclusion Fair they not only give us an opportunity to meet; here there are entrepreneurs who have set up their own businesses, consultancies and services. These meetings make us visible to society, because we have the same rights. We can and want to work.