#55 Doctors and Disability
With Prof Nathan Grills
Working amongst people with disabilities does not stop with medical care or social provision. How do we as health practitioners do we go beyond a medical model to value people with disability as created in the image of God who are co-heirs with us?
This involves ‘fighting alongside people with disability, and those who care for them and their families, for inclusion and equality, both in society and in the Church’. Its more than being a channel for physical healing. Ultimately, God calls us to ‘mutual friendship, respect, love, and justice” We will explore what this might look like.
Further resources:
- Disability inclusion toolkit - engaging with disability in the church (pdf)
- Disability in Mission by David C Deuel & Nathan G John
- Joni & Friends
- Disability and the Gospel by Michael S. Beates
- Luke 14 - an initiative from CBM helping churches welcome people living with disabilities
- Beyond Suffering - a course from Joni & Friends
Prof Nathan Grills
Professor Nathan Grills (MBBS, MPH, DPHIL, DPH) is a Public Health Physician at the Nossal Institute for Global health, University of Melbourne. His work focuses on disability largely in the context of community settings in India. He established a number of disability projects and networks in rural north India. Nathan researches disability measurement and inclusion and has a personal experience of disability through caring for his daughter. In the past Nathan has extensively researched the role of FBOs in responding to HIV and disability (DPhil, Oxford University). He has undertaken community health work in PNG, Fiji, Bangladesh, Nepal, Kenya, Thailand and Mozambique.
