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| TO MY INTERNATIONAL FOLLOWERS OF THIS BLOG, SHARE IT, SHAME IRELAND FOR THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND RESPONSIBILIES, UNTIL THE RATIFCATION ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THOSE OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IS MADE THEN WE CANNOT HOPE FOR CHANGE IN IRELAND WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN LET EUROPE KNOW OUR STORY |
The article in
today’s Irish Times by Dr. Clonan sent people into their own personal painful
stories of experiences.
I honestly didnt
think it was as bad as it is, and yet it appears that it is so.
Many now indicate
that the situation is dire, appealing to members of the Dail from all corners
of Ireland for their childrens’ needs fall on deaf ears.
It does seem it
is but the tip of the iceberg, raging waters of poverty of equipment and
services and appliances for all four counties screams from the pages of
disability groups and especially the mothers and fathers who are asked to cope
against all the odds.
In disbelief of
one persons story i asked another who had multiple disabled children, ‘can it
really be this bad?’
Confirmation came
through her own story.
So the economy is
on the rise, the country is seemingly getting back on its feet, people are
baying for the extra pennies that were lopped off wages within both public
sector and private sector and yet not one disablity group seems to have crawled
from the mire of austerity in any shape or form and it doesnt look, indeed as
if disabled children ad adults, life style chances of enhancement is coming soon, if ever.
In one family
alone an older child’s powered wheelchair has cost a single mother over 3,000k
and the second child coming after is squeezed into an already far too small
chair as it is.
Both children
have life limiting conditions.
The house is set
out like a mini hospital and there is constant lock-down in health crisis, one
after the other.
Splints, shoes,
tubing, dressings, medicines etc all have to be juggled alongside the the far larger bills for
the wheelchairs and orthotics and shoes and apparatus baying for the limited
funds within that household.
Hospital runs,
appointments and emergencies are all occurring, sleepless nights, baby sitters
to cover staying with one while the mother is in the hospital with the other.
In another case
four children are disabled.
Again the same
seems to be the case, a 4,500k wheelchair for a child is needed. Mothers are going to companies who make
up from bits and pieces of chairs a half decent one for the child or go to a
second hand internet forum to find something similar and do payments in small
chunks.
The days seem
endless, mothers online for this and that. The exhaustion much be profound.
The HSE promising
to pay back when parents get a chair but this never happens of course.
The despair is
reeking through these stories, but who really cares?
Fund raisers and
fund raising are the order of the day but many families find ‘what another fund
raiser, what for NOW?’ people are asking.
Its endless.
The fund raisers
are driving the cash strapped public weary and bleary and the good samaritan is
exhausted with the clang from the clash of coins in the next begging needy
disabled family or group or for the family group.
Where can all this
end?
Adults too find
it very tough indeed.
Over 60% of those
getting wheelchairs from the HSE services are dissatisfied with the ones they
have received, and are seen and felt not fit for the disability they personally
have. (Dr. Gowran)
The idea that the
wheelchair is more a luxury than a prosthesis is par for the course.
Even to the eyes
of those working within the HSE, if a person stands up, all eyes are agog ‘i
thought he/she was disabled’ but
most know that there are so many variables that most using wheelchairs are
actually able to use their legs, but with such limitations to make it
impossible or too painful or tiring.
Not only do we
have those with disabilities living below the poverty line we have parents
trying to fund the care and needs of growing children and dependent adults also
living in poverty as well.
When the Hse runs
a second hand ‘outfit’ for second hand wheelchairs, its a disaster.
Wheels fly off
and a sick person goes into a wall.
(this commentator’s).
Wheelchairs
slither into the muck on the side of a slight gradient, and the user told ‘ah
sure they were never made for wet paving. (this commentator’s), yet this time
the commentator was told it was because the bar at the back had not locked into
place, but as it happened again, i looked at it and sure enough it was in
correct position. Systems failure
in other words, or dodgy indoor powered wheelchair never meant for paths going
south as in gradient.
Fact being,
wheelchairs now-a-days are slithering and slithering off course into a divet to
the side could have been fatal.
I heard of one
case of a person going into a river in a wheelchair.
So how on earth
can we be very chuffed to be pulling away from austerity and getting back into
the black.
Who is?
Where is it
reflected that Ireland is in recovery?
Is it?
I do not see it.
The mothers and
fathers of disabled children do not see it.
And adults with
disabilities are still not getting well paid jobs, if jobs at all and the
poverty of disease, weighs heavily on top of the poverty of services.
We are in crisis
– the disability movements are in crisis and so too are those with
disabilities. We need to see major
changes and shifts of emphasis.
Most people caring
for sick and disabled children, if given a break and some leaway can offer more
in spades.
Most adults with
a disability as well, given the chances, the transport etc offer just as good a
career path as abled bodied persons, but employers it seems, think maybe they
are more of a liability.
Tosh i say.
The only
liability is lack of change, empowerment, rights and equality.
I am enraged to
hear the stories that i have placed here in this article from only three
families i already know about.
The tip of the
iceberg
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