Doctoral research – Disabled Children’s Participation in Healthcare Decision-Making
Research summary
Disabled children are more likely than their non-disabled peers to seek medical care and to experience long hospital stays and recoveries. They may be subjected to various forms of remedial treatments, therapies or surgeries seeking to restore the ‘normal’ functioning of their bodies and minds. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in its Article 12 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in its Article 7 entitle children with the right to express their views and to participate in all matters that affect their lives including healthcare. This ongoing doctoral research project uses socio-legal analysis to explore the barriers to participation disabled children may face in the context of elective orthopaedic surgeries and examines the synergies between the norms of the CRC and the CRPD. It combines comparative legal research of national laws and policies in the domains of child rights and patient rights and qualitative social inquiry to investigate the experiences of disabled children, their parents and healthcare professionals in England and Serbia with an aim of putting forward evidence-based recommendations for improvements of legal frameworks and professional practices.