Posts by walrus
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Access: A touching story, in reply to Angela Hart,
All hail AT, they've saved us ratepayers from the legions of taxi drivers wanting to install hoists in their vans purely because they think hoists are sexy. Because that HAS to be why they were asking for the funding, right?
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Access: Help needed! Deciphering the…, in reply to Sacha,
They said that 252 days a year of respite care was made available to her – a higher allocation than anyone else on their books. She could also choose the carer.
Betcha those 252 days of "respite care" were actually Carer Support--ie not respite, not days, and not with paid carers.
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Angela Hart,
There was also the problem that an academically able disabled child was funded to remain in high school to age 21 but could not access government funded support to go to University until they were , I think, 18.
It was worse than that. The funding only moved with you to university if you'd done your full stretch at school. Three extra years. The length of a BA. Remember Ryan Leitch?
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Access: Patients X, Y and Z, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
I bet my boots that there is hard evidence that this shit happened to these poor sods..patient records and the like…so what is being argued here?
That the abuse was somehow ok? Part of the treatment? SOP for those who react aggressively out of frustration?
Mainly the latter two, I think. I think it will be "they did their best, and that's all anyone can ask for". This is something we tell children and something which is generally regarded to be true. It is NOT true. Beyond doing your best, there is recognising that your best is not good enough and making way for or seeking help from someone who can do better. But they will say that neither the workers nor the institutions knew any better way. They might even claim that no better way exists. But I expect we will be asked to accept their very deep, painful regrets and understand that they shouldn't be punished when they were really trying SO hard to look after these sick, broken people...
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Access: Fighting seclusion with…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
It's an exercise in creative writing, an essay by a sort of fictional generic 'disabled' persona. As such, I give it a C-, because it does at least demonstrate organisation and a serviceable ability with the English language. But as far as content goes... Many of us reading it will be thinking "yes, but is anyone actually going to DO anything,? Have you even recognised that things NEED TO BE DONE?" While the muggles will be reading it largely oblivious to the fact that this is not even close to the way things work now. What a pointless exercise. And they told us at the consultation meetings that they knew this thing "needs to have teeth". Well, it hasn't. I think they lied to imply it even could.
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I get so sick of The Powers That Be trumpeting how much money they're spending as if we'll all be blinded by big numbers into thinking they're wonderful. It doesn't matter how much money you're spending, if you're not achieving the desired results you're not doing it right. And if these ARE your desired results...
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I'll just leave this here. My son’s autism meant he was refused New Zealand residency – so we’re leaving
274 comments! Wonder how many of them are merely saying "pretty much everywhere else does this too"? -
Access: Right to die?, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Make a submission, because you can see it a lot more clearly than most. It's a headache for me because I can see the situation you describe happening to me... but I can also see a future in which I no longer have the strength to arrange my own death in any way that is acceptable to me (eg directing my power chair off the end of a wharf is not acceptable to me). But damn it, we SHOULD have a society in which it is possible to choose between dying in a dignified manner and continuing to live with all the support necessary to make that LIFE dignified. When a politician puts up a 'Life with Dignity' bill, perhaps with the death part as coda, s/he'll have my respect.
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Access: The Blue Inhaler, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
No mention that anyone is considering having words with, let alone disciplining, the teacher, of course...
Are people these days not able to recognise a medical emergency, or to round up to medical emergency if they're not sure? I could understand the teacher stopping to PHONE the nurse, but email?? If my imaginary child has an asthma attack and dies while I'm waiting for a response to an email to a nurse about it, I'm pretty sure the standard American response is to arrest me for something on the continuum between child neglect and manslaughter.
Next point not addressed in the Stuff piece: where were the girl's meds? 'cause she clearly knew what was happening and would have reached for them if she had them. My guess is they're locked in a cupboard in the nurse's office because, you know, they're dangerous, and what do kids know about using their own medications anyway? (Not that it's just kids. I'm sure we've all read pieces about the not uncommon adverse consequences of hospitals' tendency to take diabetics' insulin away from them on admission.)
(Even more tangentially: I have been tutted at for having brought my own [non-asthma] medications with me when being admitted to hospital, and made to promise not to use them. One is supposed to rely on the nurses to administer everything at the correct intervals and dosages and to note same down on the chart. I won't comment on the track record there! I have then, later, been visited by the hospital pharmacist who has a "thank God" response [more professionally phrased] when I produce my own meds because two of them they don't keep in stock and one they can't get in for several days.)
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Now, if only MOH:DSS clients could pay their family carers through IF...
Hell, I would have taken my family carer being permitted to seek employment through an agency to provide my care! The agencies could then have screened prospective family carers for suitability the same way they (should) do other applicants, monitored the performance of those family carers they employed, checked for abuse, etc... Instead we have this separate and entirely unequal system that results in my family carer being paid less than she could be if she weren't family, for fewer hours, with a bunch of stupid restrictions (like a limit on how many hours she can work AT ANY JOB/S each week), and intrusive visits from NASC workers to ensure that the influence of all those enticing minimum wage dollars hasn't inexorably driven her to abuse me. But clearly they did not want to do it in a simple or sensible (or fair) way.