General Purpose: To inform.
Specific Purpose: This informative speech aims to help the audience understand the hardships, barriers, and struggles that poor citizens and low-income communities in the United States (US) face when trying to get prosthetic services and, consequently, acknowledge the need for expanding these.
Attention getter: Many of you may be aware that “persons with disabilities (PWD) are at higher risk of living in poverty, being unemployed, and having less access to healthcare compared to the general population” (Magnusson et al., 2022, p. 1).
Thesis: I want to tell listeners with this informative speech that the problem of insufficient access to prosthetic services for low-income groups and individuals is also prevalent in the US.
Credibility: When I was introduced to the field of medical science, my attention was immediately attracted by the financial and infrastructure unaffordability of prostheses for the poor, and I devoted much time to exploring it. I believe it was my compassion that made me choose this topic.
Preview: The first thing I want to discuss is the daily struggles and hardships faced by people with lost limbs. The second topic will be the financial barriers to prosthetics and orthopedics services that this community is trying to overcome. The last point of my speech will be infrastructural obstacles.
Transition: As it can be seen, there is a hidden, invisible health crisis in poor communities of individuals with limb loss, generated by the high cost and partly inefficient healthcare infrastructure in the US.
Summary of major points: We discussed the daily challenges such people have to overcome and the specific monetary and infrastructural barriers to getting prosthetics and associated treatments.
Ending: Poor people with lost limbs have experienced pain and hardship which, I hope, each of you will never encounter on your life path. Our civic and professional duty is to help them reintegrate successfully by increasing access to prosthetics.
Reference
Magnusson, L., Kebbie, I., & Jerwanska, V. (2022). Access to health and rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone – focus group discussions with stakeholders. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1), 1-11.