PPlog

  There is a new report by NDTI (National Development Team for Inclusion -  advocacy@ndti.org.uk ) and Voice Ability, the champion for people with mental ill-health conditions and learning disabilities ( https://www.voiceability.org/ ). Taking notice of this report  is of great urgency, detailing as it does the bad treatment afforded to our most vulnerable citizens by government and its associated institutions. Extracts say: "Blanket decisions about access to treatment and visitors are being taken without clear justification, including enforced confinement, denying access to outdoor space or gardens, and preventing leave for people who are on mental health wards. Half of advocates reported care providers had stopped all visits and almost half (47%) reported that people were being confined to their rooms…." and: "A lack of understanding of people’s rights under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is a common thread through many responses. Advocates reported ...

I have COPD and I've just read this excellent  document. However, some of it’s recommendations such as reviews at home using tools like ‘microspirometery’ are inaccessable for me because they rely on the patient having a smart phone. once again; I’m unable to use a smart phone as I have Essential Tremors - my fingers dance all over the place so tapping at any target is impossible!   Yet another example of social discrimination.   The URL for the report is https://www.blf.org.uk/your-stories/restoring-care-for-patients-with-lung-disease

So I looked up Norfolk County Council Adult Social Care and after finding how to get in touch; with some difficulty (directed to another page), I went onto that page. Got another button saying: “make support needs enquiry online.” Got another page with four buttons, one of which said “support needs.” On pressing that, got a form: “Support Needs Questionnaire & Enquiry.” After completing the form with difficulty (one of my support needs is help with essential Tremors, making typing problematic), I was contacted by a woman who said she was a “social worker” and, with an attitude I, as a northener, would describe as ‘snotty.’ she told me she would have to assess my “wants;” not my needs! I told her I was a retired social worker and had never come across such blatant rationing. After a lengthy debate centering on ‘needs’ and ‘wants,’ during which she was even more snotty, I told her to forget my application and switched off. This statement is from the current working requirements o...

 This is a copy from the British Lung Foundation site It is so good and profound I had to post it here too (with names redacted) "A new campaign is being launched this winter to improve air quality. The aim is to tackle the problem of wood burning in homes across the region, which can affect people with breathing difficulties like asthma. As the weather changes and the temperature drops, more people are lighting wood burning stoves in their house according to .......... Borough Council. The council say this can pollute the air and with coronavirus still circulating “that’s not something anyone wants on their conscience while they are trying to relax”. As a result it has now teamed up with three nearby local authorities, ........... as part of the campaign. The project offers residents information and advice on household burning, asking them to reduce the amount of burning they do, and to use cleaner fuels and more efficient appliances to help improve people’s overall health. The c...

I'm going to use myself as an example of how disabilities can be created by impairments (medical model). The emphasis on 'impairments' here comes about by my personal circumstances, in that I now have very little contact with social factors as I very rarely get out of the house - I'm a pseudo residential prisoner. Within these four walls, my impairments and their effects are: 1. A degenerate lumbar scoliosis with a trapped nerve. Loss of control of my left leg with a loss of balance leading to unsteadiness, clumsiness and falls. I have to use a wheelchair most of the time but I can stand precariously (for five minutes before acute pain) and move around using things like kitchen units for support. Pressure sores has been a recent developing problem but this been alleviated by equipment provided by community physiotherapy. 2. ESSENTIAL TREMORS - In capitals due to its everyday-allday de-skilling effects: Inability to write anything longhand so no notes; difficulty in typi...

I’m really sick and tired of this blasted curse that’s following me around.  I’m talking about essential tremors which means I’m unable to use a smart (touch)  mobile phone; or an iPad; I can’t write a long hand and I have extreme difficulty in typing. A good example of how this can obstruct social action is that I sometimes get emails asking me to mail my MP. This is just too problematic for me and I never do now (although I have a collection of several replies from the past in which he just trots out tory mantras). This programme,  ” SpeechTexter ”  attached to Google Chrome is really valuable but frustrating at times when when it misunderstands what I’m saying and sometimes crashes losing all the text.  I find Mac Dictation, which I have on my computer, is useless as the bulk of what I dictate comes out as unrelated nonsense.  I’m told that Dragon Professional is the the best program to use for turning  voice into text and it will will allow you to ...

I have for some time been concerned about the establishment’s  attitude towards disability and  and independent living. I think the the culprits lie both in health and social care, exacerbated, of course, by covid-19 .  A good example of current problems is the current  situation applying to to many GP practices. All GP practices should have (according to NHS England)  active Patient Participation Groups. Unfortunately, this is far from the case with some CCGs content to  let their patient participation groups lie dormant under the excuse that ppg members have no access  to  video technology.  To my mind what is needed here  is is social media traffic acting as research about problems individual patients and disabled people are facing because of this.