Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

there are of course some disabled persons who cannot work and the process recognizes that and they then get full benefit. I agree a good assessment will detect those with genuine need. However genuiness needs to come from both sides 'genuinely willing to work at some level if possible and genuinely willing to assess correctly and care in the process. I think it's the officers who just do not demonstrate caring that really annoy me.

I stood in my supermarket queue today with another younger fellow and there was a retired lady with a stroller/aide getting her shopping and losing her purse and fussing about - she looked at us too and said you can come through if you want I'm waiting for my husband - I'm sure we both thought the same thing - you may be but not in the main queue - but we had a joke with her and finally she moved out and let us through and then her hubbie arrived with more goods - by this time we were ahead of her, but we stopped and chatted and had a good laugh and joke - I'm just glad we can still do that instead of getting annoyed and frustrated with things. We told her husband she was a real trouble maker and had been giving us all a hard time - he agreed!

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

Here's a true story that might inspire?

Wheel chair apprentices?

I read recently about Jacka who as a young 18yr old lad ran into a tree on his motorbike and broke his neck, becoming paralysed almost throughout his entire body.

You can read his full story through the reference below. Jacka was doing a carpentry apprenticeship at the time. Once he recovered from the initial damage in hospital he just decided to get on with life and do whatever he wanted.

He started flying Microsoft aircraft to give him freedom from the ground but it got too cold so he changed to a cockpit with heater and now owns a Jabiru J230 plane which he flies with his wife on board to places for afternoon tea!

Jacka retrained himself in mechanical engineering. Now he works for Melbourne Water as manager.
What has this got to do with success and what can we learn from Jacka story? Well Jacka is classified as being quadriplegic – i.e. cannot use his arms or legs and yet he has completed an apprenticeship in engineering and flies a plane regularly.

Jacka says “You are only limited by what you think you can do." - by thinking we can do things is actually limiting ourselves – don’t just think about doing things and whether you can but do it!

When he’s up there flying he says despite his ‘disabilities’ he is the same as anyone else who is up there flying too and in fact rates himself as better than most. We all may think we have certain disabilities not quite the same as Jacka but still disabilities to us – are they holding us back or are we willing to accept them but work beyond them?

Jacka reminds us when tackling problems don’t try to tackling the entire problem whatever it is but tackle small bits of it each time – it’s easier that way. This April he is planning to fly around the entire coast of Australia in small chunks!

Finally he leaves us with some words of inspiration that we could all adopt as a New Year resolution
“What I have learnt is I have very few limitations”

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/fl...104-2c8fr.html

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

I agree it's a very inspiring story, but it brings me back to a comment I made on an earlier thread regarding disability and so-called "welfare scroungers."
A very high proportion of those on disability and incapacity benefit are not just "disabled" - they are disabled and chronically sick (usually as a result of their disability and the medication prescribed for it). If the inability to walk for more than a short distance was the only problem my wife had, for example, wild horses wouldn't stop her from working for a living. What makes it impossible is the constant debilitating pain, the high doses of morphine-based medication she has to take, and the illnesses caused by the side-effects of some of her drug regime. I'm sure my wife would love to fly a plane, but the likelihood of her falling asleep with no warning every now and again wouldn't make it a very safe mode of travel!

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

and your wife gets her full welfare benefits?

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

At the moment she does (ESA and DLA) - although with the current ATOS regime, those benefits are by no means secure. Compared with many, we are very fortunate, because I was lucky enough to be kicked upstairs to Senior Management for the three years before I retired, and I had a Final Salary Pension scheme. As a result my pension takes us just above the threshold for Council Tax/Housing Benefit which gives the "authorities" two less sticks with which to beat us. I cannot imagine the anguish and constant worry of those who, for no fault of their own, are totally dependent upon the whims of the benefits industry for their very survival. It is no surprise that people in that invidious position sometimes commit suicide as a last, tragic resort.
Until her accident, my wife worked all her life and had never claimed a penny in benefits - even then it took me nearly two years to convince her that she was entitled to benefits and should claim them. Her sense of independence made it very difficult for her to admit that she needed help and support from anyone. In my experience, I think that she is much more representative of people on benefits than are the stereotyped "scroungers" the gutter press would like us to concentrate on.

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

Not commenting on your wife this is just a general point. My husband is waiting for a knee replacement he is on a morphine based painkiller, he is sick daily from this, has to stop and have sleep several times a day. He is struggling, his boss isn't making his job any easier and keeps finding jobs where he needs to kneel down to them which is the most painful thing he can do at the moment.

He can't have his operation due to lack of money in the NHS. They have offered next year to cut off his leg as that is cheaper !

He isn't disabled according to his doctor so is expected to carry on working.

I don't see why he has to struggle and I see people who are much fitter on benefit.

This is what causes a lot of resentment.
Especially on a day when my MS flares up and I struggle too. But can't give up as I am entitled to nothing absolutely nothing as I have worked part time jobs (several at a time to make a full time salary) but never one full time job to accrue rights to benefits/pension or anything else.

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

Julie darlin' - that is despicable!!! - your OH should camp out on your Surgeon's doorstep and refuse to move until they agree to give him a shiny new metal knee (I've had BOTH knees replaced).

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

Easier said than done though. He has been treated badly all through this IMO, I do sometimes wonder if he did not have Aspergers would he be treated differently.

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

I have every sympathy - My wife is waiting for both her knees and both her hips to be replaced, but at 51, they say she is "too young" - so she is looking at 6 or 7 years before her specialists will give the OK for the ops. In the meantime, her NHS drugs bill must be horrendous, to say nothing of the productivity lost by her inability to work.

Re: The disabled - part of us or depart from us?

Yes too young has been the cry when my husband has gone in, so stupid he is really struggling to keep working and your wife losing her productive years too ! It seems ridiculous to say too young. Would they say that if these things happened to them or their families ?