Here is a letter I sent to the Physical and Sensory Disability service in the North-West this week:
12th August, 2016
Re: Emergency increase in Personal Assistance hours for client with multiple disabilities
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to request an urgent increase in Personal Assistance (PA) hours until early 2017. I am visually impaired and have restricted physical mobility, meaning that I need to use a guide dog and a powerchair to leave my own house for medical appointments, shopping, banking and participating in society. I have outlined the nature of my disabilities and their impact on my daily life in the attached Disability Impact Statement, and my specific requirements from a Personal Assistant in the attached form.
My current guide dog has had to retire due to health concerns. Due to my unusual set of needs, a succession dog will not be available to work with me until early 2017. This leaves me with severely restricted mobility in the interim.
As well as providing sighted guidance for mobility outside the home, my specially-trained dog provided additional mobility assistance within the home. The loss of this essential part of my independent living toolkit therefore has a significant and acute impact on my daily life.
I live alone, and currently have 15 PA hours per week, which are almost entirely used for assistance with personal care, housework and, to a minimal degree, accessing print materials within my own home. I already have very limited access to any assistance with transport or tasks outside the home. Having no assistance dog now means I am restricted to a few essential journeys very close to home (within 1-2 km) on familiar routes with good environmental accessibility.
In my current situation, I cannot visit my parents in Dublin, visit any friends’ houses or participate in many recommended theraputic activities e.g. a group singing project organised by the mental health service to which I was referred by the occupational therapist. If I drop, spill or break something on the floor, I may have to wait for 23 hours before a PA is available to clear it up or find essential items for me. When I need to make a medical appointment, I have to wait until a friend with a car is present before I can arrange a time that I can attend.
The interaction of my visual impairment with my mobility impairment means that I am in an unusually challenging position. These impairments combine in unique and often unforeseen ways to create complex barriers to my participation in society and living independently. As such, they should be understood as a form of “third impairment”, with needs distinct from people with only a physical or a sensory disability. The combination of Personal Assistance, powerchair and guide-dog is an essential tool for my independent living. Without that special combination, I am unable to leave my front door by myself. Without a working guide-dog, I urgently need a much higher degree of Personal Assistance to maintain my level of independence.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours,
Isolde Carmody
Within 24 hours of writing that letter, my cat puked somewhere in my bedroom. I couldn’t see where, but boy could I smell it! There would be no PA available to clear it up for me for another 18 hours. Despite keeping my bedroom door closed (the smell was truly awful), my retired guide-dog got in there and helpfully licked up some of the vomit. Since I didn’t know where the vomit was, or whether the dog had eaten all of it, I slept on the sofa that night. The next day, my retired dog was off his food, and had diarrhoea, thankfully in the garden. My PA that morning couldn’t find the vomit, partly because she doesn’t understand animals, so it was 48 hours later that the last of the vomit was cleaned up.
Today, I was told that no new hours had been approved for me. I can’t leave my house. And I won’t be able to go anywhere further than 1 or 2 km until some unspecified time in 2017.
THIS IS ILLEGAL DETENTION
Access Adventures in IsoldeLand 