Mobility is a factor that can either promote or hinder an individual’s access to complementary therapy for example due to an individuals mobility they may be unable to gain access to the premises or the premises may not provide the facilities that are needed to accommodate this individual. An individual with mobility problem may chose to use complementary therapies as certain therapies such as reflexology may help to ease the pain and help the movements in their joints.
Geographical area
The area in which you live can have a great impact on an individual’s access to complementary therapy. Individuals living in urban areas have a great rage of centres that are available without them having to travel lightly distances to access them. When living in an urban area there are advantages such as public transport that runs regularly however the problem with this is that urban areas can sometimes be highly congested with traffic, this may discourage an individual to use centres due to busy rods. Suburbs areas are the opposite to urban areas they are less likely to be congested are there is very little traffic. As there is little public transport which doesn’t run regularly and it can be very time consuming for and individual to travel far distances to access a centre. Individuals living in rural and suburbs areas may have very few centres that are available and may not even know where their nearest centre is
Culture
When analyzing research complementary therapies are very common when it comes to culture. Not all cultures may use or believe in the same theories as they all come from different origins. For example within Africa some tribes forbid individuals using therapies such as acupuncture as it is seen as witchcraft. Within some countries such as America complementary therapies may be used regularly, the reason for this is that individuals have to pay for healthcare therefore theta are not really loosing on weather they pay for complementary therapies as they have to ay for orthodox medicines.
Most Chinese people tend to use herbal remedies as it is part of their culture. The herbal use of remedies among the Chinese may be due to the fact that herbal use is very common within the Chinese culture in general. Within the afro Caribbean culture complementary therapies such as teas, vitamins, nutritional supplements, prayer spiritual healing and relaxation techniques are used very regularly as it is part of their culture.
Social economic
Your social class status can either hinder or promotes a person access to complementary therapy. Your social class is divided into eight categories with the lowest starting from one and the highest being 8. Depending on the social class an individual is in, it will establish the wealth of that individual and how much money they will receive.
From my research on complementary therapies some treatments can be quite costly and most treatments vary. Most sessions normally last about 40-60 minutes at a time and depending on what treatment an individual needs depends on their circumstances, you will normally need about 6-8 treatments. Your social class can prevent you using complementary therapies as it can be very expensive this leaves individuals restricted as they do not have spare money to undergo the treatment unfortunately this may stop them from using complementary therapies.
Education
Weather an individual has been educated or the type of education they may receive can either influence or deter both the use and access to the therapies available. Nowadays many individual would jus go to their GP, their GP will then prescribe them with some orthodox medicine according to their needs, many people have not be educated and informed about the many other ways their health problems can be treated, lack of education hinders peoples access to the services available as they are unaware of the choices , individuals will not know unless they have been told so it is very unlikely for them to ask about the therapy as they are unaware that they exist. The stage or level an individual is at again can both promote or hinder access as they may be at a low level so there may not be taught a great deal of information.