Assistive technologies for disability. From prosthetic assistance to the promotion of skills and inclusion. What role can the disability manager play?


Abstract:

To date, WHO estimates that more than one billion people need assistive technology, but that only 10% of them have access to it. The article aims to analyze the current model of territorial prosthe-tic assistance, highlighting all the epistemological-cultural and practical difficulties that the Local Health Authorities and the professionals involved in the process are forced to face. The Disability Manager can better organize the prescriptive process with the aim of improving the user-centred choice of the aid, avoiding its abandonment, controlling its psycho-educational impact on the per-son's life. The paper highlights the need to think about a shift of focus: from the device for the de-ficit to the tool to solicit new skills and promotes inclusion; from "aid" to cultural device for the promotion of biopsychosocial well-being.