Once upon a time there was a princess named Suzanne who was born to Queen Alice and King Richard. They all lived in a beautiful castle in London.
When Princess Suzanne turned sixteen, she became very beautiful princess with long curly silky blond hair. Her checks and lips were as red as strawberries.
The king and Queen's marriage ended but they still wanted there daughter to marry a handsome prince.
One day the princess put on her lovely long red dress and wore her gold crown, she told her Father that she was going out for a walk on a beautiful sunny day.
" What a wonderful idea," said King Richard
The princess walked through the fields of red roses, she walked for miles not knowing where she was going and where she was going to end up. Suddenly the princess came to a road as she crossed over, she saw a white witch waving to her through a window of a hut in a field she had blond hair and she wore a white pointed hat. The princess walked through a gate straight down a path. The hut was on the right hand side as she knocked the door.
" Come into my hut, princess I think I have some good news for you."
" Hi, I am Princess Suzanne!"
" Hi, I am White witch!"
The white witch waved her magic wand, then told the princess that she was going to meet a handsome prince and live happily ever after. This made the princess so happy, she jumped up and down with joy.
" Now princess, you now need to see the black witch, she will know more about the prince than I do."
The princess went to see the black witch, when she told the princess that she was not pretty enough for the prince. The black witch wanted the prince herself. The princess walked out of the hut in tears. As she walked out she passed the brown witch's hut so she knocked her door.
" I fancy the prince, I would not match him with you."
The princess walked out and cried yet again. Out came the black and the brown witch together setting themselves on the princess, then end up falling out over the prince themselves. Out came the the brown and black cat as they hissed at the princess and the two witches. The white witch and her cat saved the princess. The princess walked round and round the white witch's hut crying her eyes out in shock.
" I am so sorry Suzanne, I never thought they would behave like this, oh take no notice of those two nasty witches."
" They are like a pair of kids."
" I told them to stop being jealous because it doesn't get you anywhere."
" Thank you, White witch."
The Suzanne was a very quit princess. The white witch took the princess into her hut.
" It's ok here is the Black Witch's black cat, it only hissed at you because she trained it to. I train this black cat to give you good luck.
" Oh thank you, white witch."
The white witch took hold of the princess's hand, as she rubbed princess's hand all across the black cat. The white witch waved her magic wand.
" Don't be frightened princess, there's nothing to worry about."
The black cat gave a purl, she was pure black without any other colour.
Sooner the princess rubbed the black cat, the white witch said.
" Now look outside the window princess."
When princess looked outside the window, there was a tall dark haired handsome prince who came out of a black Rolls Royce car. The prince came into the hut and carried the princess outside into the Rolls Royce car. They went to live in Paris. No one knows if they lived happily ever after or not.
" Wow." said the princess
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
My experince with the NHS.
When I was about 2 to 3 yrs old. A doctor fell asleep when he was assessing me. He was very old, perhaps his health wasn't very good either. He should have retried at that point.
When I was 13 yrs I had a brace for 2 yrs because my teeth kept on sticking out like Bugs Bunny, I used to get picked on in school because my teeth. The NHS would not let me have a brace at first because of the tablets I was taking for my fits. The tablets were were making my gums my soft. They did trust me to keep the brace clean. They though it would be dangerous for me to have a brace because of fits.When they finely put brace on me I coped better than what they thought. They did not think a person with a disability could cope with a brace. I was also very disappointed to find out that they would not operate on my teeth because I think my teeth have come forward during my adult years. Perhaps if they would have operated on my teeth, they may not have stuck out again.
When I was 23 yrs old, I was in the eye, ear, mouth and throat hospital in Shropshire, I had cancer of the throat. It was the morning after my operation at 6.00am when I fell over a pile of bed panes in the bathroom. All I remember was unbolting the door as I passed a nurse saying to me.
" Sara, your chin is bleeding,"
" Sorry, I didn't know, nothing hurts, I just feel dizzy."
The nurse walked me up to my bed, she left with some tissues moping my chin until 12.30pm. I was so fed up moping my chin hours on end. My Mother came in at 12.00pm wondering why I was left such a long time moping my chin. My Mother went mad. It was 12.30pm when the doctors finely stitched my chin up.
I have just changed my doctors because I didn't like the prescription system. Talking the prescription to the doctors and waiting two days until the doctor will sign it. I like to get the job done in one.This system sounds better now but they are still waiting for my medication history off my last doctors.
I also didn't like the way my old doctors communicated with me, I didn't like their tones of voices and I felt that they were very rude.
Our Shout Mencap understand that people with disabilities can get forgotten about. Health staff need to be trained by people disabilities to be able to understand people with disabilities and learn how to look after them. You must use easy words, easy pictures, there should be more learning disability nurses and doctors about. The government should pay more health care. Disabled people and old people get left behind when been in hospital, there seems to be very little money to employ Health staff. The problem in this country is that the money seems to be spent on the least important things. No wonder there has been so many unnecessary deaths like the Death indifference for eg; Please go on the Mencap website, or just put Mencap in your search engine which will tell you about the six shocking deaths of young people with Learning Disabilities.
INTRODUCTION. Real lives, real bad Health care stories of people with learning disabilities.
We have had good and bad experiences, as have most people. However the bad outweighed the good. I do this work with a Self - Advocacy group called Our Shout supported by Mencap, which is a group of people with learning disabilities. In order to respect the group of people I work with, it's only fair to keep their stories private even though my story is on my website. What will say is what we have been through has neglect has caused us more harm than the illnesses we have gone to hospital for. Our stories are not only about what we have through in the hospitals but what have through in the doctors too. We are hard to see that what we have been doesn't happen to other people with learning disabilities. This is what we have experienced.
Not enough clear language.
Lack of respect.
People talking over us.
People ignoring us and talking to other people about us.
No real understanding of our needs.
VALUING PEOPLE NOW!
Making it happen for everyone. Valuing People Now! is a three year plan for people with a learning disability, families and carers by our say so.
Change needs to happen to everyone with learning disabilities.
'HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.' is a report that calls out a hard hitting valuable message. It sets out an undeniable evidence that people with learning disabilities have greater needs for Health care more so than other people, yet have worse access to care we need resulting poorer health.
SOME OF THE NEXT STEPS.
One of the key points is better health.
Making that mainstream NHS providers give full and equal access to good quality health care.
Most people with learning disabilities have poorer health than other people. A lot of us die young not so much due our disabilities, health problems and illnesses but neglect.
There's a clear evidence that our access to Health care is often poor with common experiences of neglect, lack of dignity and safety.
We believe this is because of institutional discrimination.
We are likely to die at a younger age than other people.
There's clear evidence that we have poor access to Health care, experiences of neglect, lack of dignity and safety.
We believe this is because of institutional discrimination.
Neglect and abuse of disabled people is absolutely unacceptable. The government is determined that lessons are learned and action is taken to better Health care for people with learning disabilities.
MENCAP'S DEATH INDIFFERENCE REPORT.
Mencap had heard about many stories of six people with learning disabilities who died because they didn't have the Health care they needed. In response to this, Mencap published a report called ` DEATH INDIFFERENCE.'which told some horrific true stories of the six people with learning disabilities who died in the hands of professionals.
Martain died in hospital on the 21st December 2005, he hadn't been given any food for 26 days. Martain had a severe learning disability and no speech. He was 43 years old.
Make sure you have the right attitude! in whatever job you do mainly when it comes to learning disability and health because this is about people's lives. Changing small things like making language more easy for people with learning disabilities to understand. Educate people you are working with including your managers to how important Health care is to people with learning disabilities. Lead by eg;
Make sure that you learn and understand about the Mental Capacity Act, It's law. You must apply it to your work.Remember you must assume everyone has capacity to make a decision until it can be proved otherwise.
Everyone who gives treatment should understand laws about consent. If you understand laws better, people with learning disabilities would get help that's in our best interest.
Remember people with learning disabilities need more time to fully understand something!
What might you do different need time to make sure that people with learning disabilities are treated to our needs and fully understand what's happening to us?
INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION HAPPENS WHEN SERVICES.
Do not value people equally.
Do not change the way services are delivered to meet all people's needs.
This has happened for far too long ans staff get used to working the same way and they don't notice that it's wrong.
Several reports say that this leads to abuse, undiagnosed illness, Mental health problems, Mental illnesses, Health problems, disabilities, Health conditions and unavoidable death.
Most Health care professionals tend to think people with learning disabilities don't have a good life. This means that they don't always do what they could do to save them. You should think that a person's life isn't worth saving just because they have learning disabilities.
Actively encourage and insist on training to help you understand learning disability. This could help prevent the unnecessary death of someone you are treating.
Attention should be paid to people with complex needs on admission to hospital making sure family carers are not doing the role of the Health professionals.
However it is crucial that you listen to family carers as well as people with learning disabilities. They know best but people with learning disabilities know how we feel.
Better partnership working with learning disability nurses to educate staff about learning disability issues.
The Disability Equality Duty became law in December 2006 and said companies like the NHS must take people with disabilities into account when we provide services.
consulting with Our Shout and other learning disability group leaders about planning and delivery of services as well as staff training would ensure that it's being done.
Talk to people with learning disabilities about producing information in accessible formats.
The Disability Discrimination Act say you need to be doing this by using different ways of using communication.
pictures
photos
gesture and signing
makaton
Talking mats
Software packages like photo symbols
Visual aids
use specialist speech and language Therapists
Our lives are just as important as yours!
Thank you for reading our presentations, mine and Martain's story. We hope you have a learned a lot off us. We are very sorry that it was sad but things need to get better for the health and safety of all people. If you have any questions, comments or anything, or if you want to learn more about learning disabilities you are more than welcome to email me on sarajgorman@googlemail.com. I hope there are more things on this website for you to learn from than just this presentation. once again thank you, we hope we have been a big help to you and bye.
When I was 13 yrs I had a brace for 2 yrs because my teeth kept on sticking out like Bugs Bunny, I used to get picked on in school because my teeth. The NHS would not let me have a brace at first because of the tablets I was taking for my fits. The tablets were were making my gums my soft. They did trust me to keep the brace clean. They though it would be dangerous for me to have a brace because of fits.When they finely put brace on me I coped better than what they thought. They did not think a person with a disability could cope with a brace. I was also very disappointed to find out that they would not operate on my teeth because I think my teeth have come forward during my adult years. Perhaps if they would have operated on my teeth, they may not have stuck out again.
When I was 23 yrs old, I was in the eye, ear, mouth and throat hospital in Shropshire, I had cancer of the throat. It was the morning after my operation at 6.00am when I fell over a pile of bed panes in the bathroom. All I remember was unbolting the door as I passed a nurse saying to me.
" Sara, your chin is bleeding,"
" Sorry, I didn't know, nothing hurts, I just feel dizzy."
The nurse walked me up to my bed, she left with some tissues moping my chin until 12.30pm. I was so fed up moping my chin hours on end. My Mother came in at 12.00pm wondering why I was left such a long time moping my chin. My Mother went mad. It was 12.30pm when the doctors finely stitched my chin up.
I have just changed my doctors because I didn't like the prescription system. Talking the prescription to the doctors and waiting two days until the doctor will sign it. I like to get the job done in one.This system sounds better now but they are still waiting for my medication history off my last doctors.
I also didn't like the way my old doctors communicated with me, I didn't like their tones of voices and I felt that they were very rude.
Our Shout Mencap understand that people with disabilities can get forgotten about. Health staff need to be trained by people disabilities to be able to understand people with disabilities and learn how to look after them. You must use easy words, easy pictures, there should be more learning disability nurses and doctors about. The government should pay more health care. Disabled people and old people get left behind when been in hospital, there seems to be very little money to employ Health staff. The problem in this country is that the money seems to be spent on the least important things. No wonder there has been so many unnecessary deaths like the Death indifference for eg; Please go on the Mencap website, or just put Mencap in your search engine which will tell you about the six shocking deaths of young people with Learning Disabilities.
INTRODUCTION. Real lives, real bad Health care stories of people with learning disabilities.
We have had good and bad experiences, as have most people. However the bad outweighed the good. I do this work with a Self - Advocacy group called Our Shout supported by Mencap, which is a group of people with learning disabilities. In order to respect the group of people I work with, it's only fair to keep their stories private even though my story is on my website. What will say is what we have been through has neglect has caused us more harm than the illnesses we have gone to hospital for. Our stories are not only about what we have through in the hospitals but what have through in the doctors too. We are hard to see that what we have been doesn't happen to other people with learning disabilities. This is what we have experienced.
Not enough clear language.
Lack of respect.
People talking over us.
People ignoring us and talking to other people about us.
No real understanding of our needs.
VALUING PEOPLE NOW!
Making it happen for everyone. Valuing People Now! is a three year plan for people with a learning disability, families and carers by our say so.
Change needs to happen to everyone with learning disabilities.
'HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.' is a report that calls out a hard hitting valuable message. It sets out an undeniable evidence that people with learning disabilities have greater needs for Health care more so than other people, yet have worse access to care we need resulting poorer health.
SOME OF THE NEXT STEPS.
One of the key points is better health.
Making that mainstream NHS providers give full and equal access to good quality health care.
Most people with learning disabilities have poorer health than other people. A lot of us die young not so much due our disabilities, health problems and illnesses but neglect.
There's a clear evidence that our access to Health care is often poor with common experiences of neglect, lack of dignity and safety.
We believe this is because of institutional discrimination.
We are likely to die at a younger age than other people.
There's clear evidence that we have poor access to Health care, experiences of neglect, lack of dignity and safety.
We believe this is because of institutional discrimination.
Neglect and abuse of disabled people is absolutely unacceptable. The government is determined that lessons are learned and action is taken to better Health care for people with learning disabilities.
MENCAP'S DEATH INDIFFERENCE REPORT.
Mencap had heard about many stories of six people with learning disabilities who died because they didn't have the Health care they needed. In response to this, Mencap published a report called ` DEATH INDIFFERENCE.'which told some horrific true stories of the six people with learning disabilities who died in the hands of professionals.
Martain died in hospital on the 21st December 2005, he hadn't been given any food for 26 days. Martain had a severe learning disability and no speech. He was 43 years old.
Make sure you have the right attitude! in whatever job you do mainly when it comes to learning disability and health because this is about people's lives. Changing small things like making language more easy for people with learning disabilities to understand. Educate people you are working with including your managers to how important Health care is to people with learning disabilities. Lead by eg;
Make sure that you learn and understand about the Mental Capacity Act, It's law. You must apply it to your work.Remember you must assume everyone has capacity to make a decision until it can be proved otherwise.
Everyone who gives treatment should understand laws about consent. If you understand laws better, people with learning disabilities would get help that's in our best interest.
Remember people with learning disabilities need more time to fully understand something!
What might you do different need time to make sure that people with learning disabilities are treated to our needs and fully understand what's happening to us?
INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION HAPPENS WHEN SERVICES.
Do not value people equally.
Do not change the way services are delivered to meet all people's needs.
This has happened for far too long ans staff get used to working the same way and they don't notice that it's wrong.
Several reports say that this leads to abuse, undiagnosed illness, Mental health problems, Mental illnesses, Health problems, disabilities, Health conditions and unavoidable death.
Most Health care professionals tend to think people with learning disabilities don't have a good life. This means that they don't always do what they could do to save them. You should think that a person's life isn't worth saving just because they have learning disabilities.
Actively encourage and insist on training to help you understand learning disability. This could help prevent the unnecessary death of someone you are treating.
Attention should be paid to people with complex needs on admission to hospital making sure family carers are not doing the role of the Health professionals.
However it is crucial that you listen to family carers as well as people with learning disabilities. They know best but people with learning disabilities know how we feel.
Better partnership working with learning disability nurses to educate staff about learning disability issues.
The Disability Equality Duty became law in December 2006 and said companies like the NHS must take people with disabilities into account when we provide services.
consulting with Our Shout and other learning disability group leaders about planning and delivery of services as well as staff training would ensure that it's being done.
Talk to people with learning disabilities about producing information in accessible formats.
The Disability Discrimination Act say you need to be doing this by using different ways of using communication.
pictures
photos
gesture and signing
makaton
Talking mats
Software packages like photo symbols
Visual aids
use specialist speech and language Therapists
Our lives are just as important as yours!
Thank you for reading our presentations, mine and Martain's story. We hope you have a learned a lot off us. We are very sorry that it was sad but things need to get better for the health and safety of all people. If you have any questions, comments or anything, or if you want to learn more about learning disabilities you are more than welcome to email me on sarajgorman@googlemail.com. I hope there are more things on this website for you to learn from than just this presentation. once again thank you, we hope we have been a big help to you and bye.
History of discrimation.
In the past in war times, Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933, roughly six years before the war broke out. The German Nazi party passed a law that called for the sterilisation of people with 'diseases' that were thought to be hereditary.
Between October 1939 and August 1941 the Aktion T4 euthanasia programme operated in Nazi Germany. It aimed to rid society of those the Third Reich called 'Useless eaters.' It is estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 disabled people were killed. Most were large-scale killings poison gas - a technique later used extermination of Jews in 'The Final Solution. This included people with learning disabilities, Mental Health, blind and deaf people.
people with disabilities have been classed as mental and physical handicap. The reason why people with disabilities were look upon that way is because no one understood us and we were a dangerous to society. We were treated very difference to non - disabled people but Adolf Hitler was against all races . We were very easy to target mostly by the likes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in world war 2.
Hitler finally called an end to the T4 programme following pressure from church and public. However, killings continued until the end of the war, often by lethal injection or starvation.
This was because all disabled people were seen as depending on the care of non - disabled people, which was hard work for the likes of Adolf Hitler, he saw people with disabilities as useless. Hitler didn't only hurt people with disabilities, he had a big problem with race full stop. For eg: he didn't like you if you were a Jew or if you were gay.
These day people with disabilities are feeling less useless and less guilty of how our disabilities affect our lives. There's a lot hard work to do yet. There are still people like Hitler about. We are all human beings whatever our race. We are human whether we have a race or not. Whatever kind of person we are we are there by choice or non at all. How people are in their race shouldn't worry you, there is more to everyone than just race. We all know the world is not perfect but lets have far less Hitlers now if not at all.
We would like to think things have moved since then but no. There's a bog concern that people who have their benefits cut get force into work they can't do without support by such places like DWP. If you or anyone you know have faced these experiences you are more than welcome to email me on sarajgorman@gmail.com
Between October 1939 and August 1941 the Aktion T4 euthanasia programme operated in Nazi Germany. It aimed to rid society of those the Third Reich called 'Useless eaters.' It is estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 disabled people were killed. Most were large-scale killings poison gas - a technique later used extermination of Jews in 'The Final Solution. This included people with learning disabilities, Mental Health, blind and deaf people.
people with disabilities have been classed as mental and physical handicap. The reason why people with disabilities were look upon that way is because no one understood us and we were a dangerous to society. We were treated very difference to non - disabled people but Adolf Hitler was against all races . We were very easy to target mostly by the likes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in world war 2.
Hitler finally called an end to the T4 programme following pressure from church and public. However, killings continued until the end of the war, often by lethal injection or starvation.
This was because all disabled people were seen as depending on the care of non - disabled people, which was hard work for the likes of Adolf Hitler, he saw people with disabilities as useless. Hitler didn't only hurt people with disabilities, he had a big problem with race full stop. For eg: he didn't like you if you were a Jew or if you were gay.
These day people with disabilities are feeling less useless and less guilty of how our disabilities affect our lives. There's a lot hard work to do yet. There are still people like Hitler about. We are all human beings whatever our race. We are human whether we have a race or not. Whatever kind of person we are we are there by choice or non at all. How people are in their race shouldn't worry you, there is more to everyone than just race. We all know the world is not perfect but lets have far less Hitlers now if not at all.
We would like to think things have moved since then but no. There's a bog concern that people who have their benefits cut get force into work they can't do without support by such places like DWP. If you or anyone you know have faced these experiences you are more than welcome to email me on sarajgorman@gmail.com
Monday, 27 April 2009
What do you want from me?
One minute you want me and the next minute you don't.
Make up your mind, love is not a mind game!
You will go ages without touching me then you suddenly do.
I know who I want but If you don't want me, I'd be a foal to wait forever.
Think about it, there's no going back once it's too late, who says I says I am going to be soft forever, I don't know?
If I did not love you so much it would not bother me.
The fact you know I love you, you know you can play on my mind.
You are confused so you are confusing me at the same time.
You will my life worse for yourself in the end!
Why do you only touch me these days when you have had a drink?
The day after drinking I know you don't feel the same.
Please stick to one answer and please tell me what that answer is!
Why am I waiting for you, I'm wasting my time like a soft fool when I could be doing better?
There must be someone out there who loves me better than you, I must be a fool to myself I really must be.
Make up your mind, love is not a mind game!
You will go ages without touching me then you suddenly do.
I know who I want but If you don't want me, I'd be a foal to wait forever.
Think about it, there's no going back once it's too late, who says I says I am going to be soft forever, I don't know?
If I did not love you so much it would not bother me.
The fact you know I love you, you know you can play on my mind.
You are confused so you are confusing me at the same time.
You will my life worse for yourself in the end!
Why do you only touch me these days when you have had a drink?
The day after drinking I know you don't feel the same.
Please stick to one answer and please tell me what that answer is!
Why am I waiting for you, I'm wasting my time like a soft fool when I could be doing better?
There must be someone out there who loves me better than you, I must be a fool to myself I really must be.
What will be will be.
Perhaps one day this very special friend whoever he may be will love me for me.
It could be a long time to come until I love again but hopefully it will be worth the wait if I'm not looking.
Yet I may well be foolish to love the love one now but love is a drug when you have loved for so long.
I am trying to get out there by doing Speed Dating which is not easy at the moment but hopefully I will get there one day.
It could be a long time to come until I love again but hopefully it will be worth the wait if I'm not looking.
Yet I may well be foolish to love the love one now but love is a drug when you have loved for so long.
I am trying to get out there by doing Speed Dating which is not easy at the moment but hopefully I will get there one day.
Trying to control feelings.
It's so hard to close door once you have loved someone for so long.
Why did I let it go too far?
Why did I hold onto you so tight, now I find it so hard to let go?
Why do I still love you after what you put me through?
Take my advice people, try not to full in love too deep, you can't get out once you get in.
If you let it like I did, love can be a habit and a drug as Bryan Ferry sang in one of his songs.
Well I should say don't fall in love too easy!
If only I knew what makes me feel strongly in love with you.
Why do I still feel this strongly in love with you?
I only wish I knew.
If only I knew 15 yrs ago what I know now.
Don't give too many chances because it gets harder as time goes on!
We must have hurt one another a thousand times but you have seemed to have stopped loving me but why haven't I stopped loving you?
If only I listened to people.
What am I on about? I still haven't learned.
I've been so soft and I am still soft today, I wonder if I will change at 40 which is not far away, scary ah?
Never let love take over your life, I wish I never did.
Please people don't make the same mistake as me!
I will need friendship to get to know someone before I love again.
After knowing the same guy for fifteen yrs, getting to know someone new will take some getting used to that's if that ever happens again.
Is my life over if it does not happen before 40? No my life has not ended.
Does life begin at the 40?
The answer, I will tell you when I get to 40 which is only in roughly 6 to 8 mouths time.
Positive thinking it's never too late for anything.
My life won't be over but it might begin.
My relationship may have ended but I think my career only began 2 yrs ago.
Never say never, it may be a long time happening but I believe it will happen.
My career took long enough.
Make the most of life because it's too short living but forever dead.
Why did I let it go too far?
Why did I hold onto you so tight, now I find it so hard to let go?
Why do I still love you after what you put me through?
Take my advice people, try not to full in love too deep, you can't get out once you get in.
If you let it like I did, love can be a habit and a drug as Bryan Ferry sang in one of his songs.
Well I should say don't fall in love too easy!
If only I knew what makes me feel strongly in love with you.
Why do I still feel this strongly in love with you?
I only wish I knew.
If only I knew 15 yrs ago what I know now.
Don't give too many chances because it gets harder as time goes on!
We must have hurt one another a thousand times but you have seemed to have stopped loving me but why haven't I stopped loving you?
If only I listened to people.
What am I on about? I still haven't learned.
I've been so soft and I am still soft today, I wonder if I will change at 40 which is not far away, scary ah?
Never let love take over your life, I wish I never did.
Please people don't make the same mistake as me!
I will need friendship to get to know someone before I love again.
After knowing the same guy for fifteen yrs, getting to know someone new will take some getting used to that's if that ever happens again.
Is my life over if it does not happen before 40? No my life has not ended.
Does life begin at the 40?
The answer, I will tell you when I get to 40 which is only in roughly 6 to 8 mouths time.
Positive thinking it's never too late for anything.
My life won't be over but it might begin.
My relationship may have ended but I think my career only began 2 yrs ago.
Never say never, it may be a long time happening but I believe it will happen.
My career took long enough.
Make the most of life because it's too short living but forever dead.
Compton Hospice
I started doing work experience at the Compton Hospice shop in Wolverhampton in 1995, when I was 26yrs old. I was on on an Adult Training Schemes. The people there were very nice but it was not the job I wanted. They were very little jobs, very short staffed and very little support. I could not manage the tills, I was under and over pricing items.
From the age of twenty - three I wanted to be a writer, before then I did not know what I wanted to do. When I told Compton Hospice I wanted to be a writer, they let me write a report in their newsletter. It was called 'THE RIGHT IDEA FOR SARA' It was mostly about the work I was doing in the shop and telling people I wanted to be a writer. It make me feel very happy that the staff gave me a chance to write for their newsletter even though shop work has never been the work for me and never will be.
I wanted to work in a library which at that time were not any vacancies, even though my wish came round one day.
Not long after asking for work in the library, I was put on a scheme called Training For Work, I did some training at the 'Beacon For The Blind office in Wolverhampton. Yet again very few jobs and I could not complete all the jobs they ask me to do quick enough for them. I though as that job ended as one door closes another one will open. I tried many things after but only two jobs I liked before helping out with Our Shout Mencap. That was Warstones library then the office at the Employment team in Wolverhampton.
From the age of twenty - three I wanted to be a writer, before then I did not know what I wanted to do. When I told Compton Hospice I wanted to be a writer, they let me write a report in their newsletter. It was called 'THE RIGHT IDEA FOR SARA' It was mostly about the work I was doing in the shop and telling people I wanted to be a writer. It make me feel very happy that the staff gave me a chance to write for their newsletter even though shop work has never been the work for me and never will be.
I wanted to work in a library which at that time were not any vacancies, even though my wish came round one day.
Not long after asking for work in the library, I was put on a scheme called Training For Work, I did some training at the 'Beacon For The Blind office in Wolverhampton. Yet again very few jobs and I could not complete all the jobs they ask me to do quick enough for them. I though as that job ended as one door closes another one will open. I tried many things after but only two jobs I liked before helping out with Our Shout Mencap. That was Warstones library then the office at the Employment team in Wolverhampton.
Equal oppportunities for people with disabilities.
When I was a child, I saw lot of people with disabilities besides my self go through a lot of disadvantages caused by discrimination. If you could not or do things first time, you would lose out. Now times have moved on to give us the right but not enough out there just yet. Not many if not anyone with a disability could see a positive future in ourselves.
When I left school over 20yrs ago, I had not learned anything. I thought I was going to spend my life looking the four walls. How wrong was I, I have achieved a lot exams in college. Now I am helping out with Our Shout Mencap to see that other people with disabilities get what they want out of life quicker than I did with the right support.
I am pleased to say that children today with disabilities are getting one to one support in schools and in college when they leave school. Having said that with this credit crunch now a lot of support and courses seem to be cutting back. We also need to make courses more interesting. Even though Life Skills are very helpful for eg maths, English, cooking and shopping; we need to support people with disabilities more to have skills for work so they can as have a normal wage as possible the same as everyone else. The government are costing themselves twice as much money paying benefits for people with mild disabilities when more than 9 out of 10 us want to some kind of work to make us feel equal to people without disabilities.
We are all human beings just like non disabled people. We except the same rights and to be treated the same as non - disabled people. With the right support people disabilities get by, we just want people to understand that we take longer than others to get. The right to us is time. If you give us that time, you have achieved skills by giving us time to achieve ours. If you were in our shoes, you'd want people to you to do things in your own time. The training non - disabled people have got is better than it used to be but not good enough. People with disabilities have a lot of hard work to do by training non - disabled people to support with disabilities to get the same rights as everyone in whatever they want.
It will never be a perfect job, at least not very quickly anyway but Mencap and people with disabilities would like to see the future getting brighter as the years go on. The next generation should be better than the last.
Support for education and employment aren't the only topics that need to get better. Education and employment are just two examples I have used. Every support for all topics need to get better their own way. Life is full of learning, it never ever stops. We can't get everything right: it takes a long to get a lot right. If you would like to help make things better for people with disabilities please email me sarajgorman@googlemail.com or even read our Mencap website.
When I left school over 20yrs ago, I had not learned anything. I thought I was going to spend my life looking the four walls. How wrong was I, I have achieved a lot exams in college. Now I am helping out with Our Shout Mencap to see that other people with disabilities get what they want out of life quicker than I did with the right support.
I am pleased to say that children today with disabilities are getting one to one support in schools and in college when they leave school. Having said that with this credit crunch now a lot of support and courses seem to be cutting back. We also need to make courses more interesting. Even though Life Skills are very helpful for eg maths, English, cooking and shopping; we need to support people with disabilities more to have skills for work so they can as have a normal wage as possible the same as everyone else. The government are costing themselves twice as much money paying benefits for people with mild disabilities when more than 9 out of 10 us want to some kind of work to make us feel equal to people without disabilities.
We are all human beings just like non disabled people. We except the same rights and to be treated the same as non - disabled people. With the right support people disabilities get by, we just want people to understand that we take longer than others to get. The right to us is time. If you give us that time, you have achieved skills by giving us time to achieve ours. If you were in our shoes, you'd want people to you to do things in your own time. The training non - disabled people have got is better than it used to be but not good enough. People with disabilities have a lot of hard work to do by training non - disabled people to support with disabilities to get the same rights as everyone in whatever they want.
It will never be a perfect job, at least not very quickly anyway but Mencap and people with disabilities would like to see the future getting brighter as the years go on. The next generation should be better than the last.
Support for education and employment aren't the only topics that need to get better. Education and employment are just two examples I have used. Every support for all topics need to get better their own way. Life is full of learning, it never ever stops. We can't get everything right: it takes a long to get a lot right. If you would like to help make things better for people with disabilities please email me sarajgorman@googlemail.com or even read our Mencap website.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Moving house
Moving house is the most stressful time for everyone, it's even harder if you have a disability. Due to your disability you can only do so much to help. It can make you feel useless. You feel equal to others around you. Most of us are not quick for others. With the right help you be able to feel equal and useful. Two pairs of hands or more are better than one. I only wish I can help more than I can do. On the whole once the hard work is done, it's worth it. Everything happens slowly when you move anyway, there's always some things that take forever or not at all.
Without been tied down from the big wide world there should a balance between peoples safety and rights, that is the right help. People who aren't disabled have good intentions but they understand what it's like to have a disability unless they had one. We need to raise awareness about these things otherwise people with disabilities won't find their lives are worth living. Those of you who have disabilities, are you getting right help? No one is saying family support isn't good but are they getting the right support to help them help you?
This can work one way or another, are people doing everything for you or are people giving you chances to do things by helping you? Are people rushing you? You may find some things harder than others so you may need time to do them. Perhaps you can do things that are so easy to that you can do them quicker than most non - disabled people.
Whatever help you feel you need Mencap are here to help person with disability and their helpers in some way. We are even here to help people with disabilities themselves. If you want to email me your story I'd be more than interested to hear it sarajgorman@googlemail.com or even a private message to facebook sarajgorman@gmail.com. Perhaps I can help you through Mencap, you will never know unless you ask. What I don't know I will ask Mencap, if that's what you want.
If you have a disability and you have experienced moving house or you may have helped a person or people with disabilities moving house. Please contract me on either email addresses on any subject to do with people with disabilities. Mencap are here to help people who help people with disabilities but they must understand difference between health, safety and rights to live like everyone in this big wide world. You guys as helpers need to balance the two because having a disability could have happened to you. How would you feel and what would you have done? You don't know do you?
When you are moving into your new home it be your choice to have what you want in your home how they want it. It is not always possible for people with disabilities to have their choice because that choice is very often made by the person or people who are helping them. Not everyone has the same taste as one another, this choice gets control ed by non - disabled people nine times out of ten, when it should be the choice of the person with a disability. Sometimes the helper and the person with a disability will agrees but that is not the point. The helper should not guess what what the person wants they should ask them first. The person who is looking after you, caring for you and helping you could be your Mother, Father, other family member, key work, support worker, link worker, carer or etc.
The reason why I am writing about moving house is because I have just moved myself. Lucky for me it has been worth the stress of the last few days. I think my Mother could have done with someone to help her even though we had a few members of the family to help. Society tends to think families have all the time in the world. These services don't understand that families have other lives or should we blame that on the government? A lot could be down to management, one hand does not know what the other hand is doing. People get the difference answers to one question from difference members of staff. It's either one answer of another to the rules of running a service people should use common sense.
My new flat has turned out to be very nice, mostly have cream and brown to match in my living room. The carpet is a cream with brown spots all the way through. Pictures and light fittings need to be soughed. There are not many plug sockets though, I guess it's because years ago there weren't any computers so there weren't many things to plug in.
Without been tied down from the big wide world there should a balance between peoples safety and rights, that is the right help. People who aren't disabled have good intentions but they understand what it's like to have a disability unless they had one. We need to raise awareness about these things otherwise people with disabilities won't find their lives are worth living. Those of you who have disabilities, are you getting right help? No one is saying family support isn't good but are they getting the right support to help them help you?
This can work one way or another, are people doing everything for you or are people giving you chances to do things by helping you? Are people rushing you? You may find some things harder than others so you may need time to do them. Perhaps you can do things that are so easy to that you can do them quicker than most non - disabled people.
Whatever help you feel you need Mencap are here to help person with disability and their helpers in some way. We are even here to help people with disabilities themselves. If you want to email me your story I'd be more than interested to hear it sarajgorman@googlemail.com or even a private message to facebook sarajgorman@gmail.com. Perhaps I can help you through Mencap, you will never know unless you ask. What I don't know I will ask Mencap, if that's what you want.
If you have a disability and you have experienced moving house or you may have helped a person or people with disabilities moving house. Please contract me on either email addresses on any subject to do with people with disabilities. Mencap are here to help people who help people with disabilities but they must understand difference between health, safety and rights to live like everyone in this big wide world. You guys as helpers need to balance the two because having a disability could have happened to you. How would you feel and what would you have done? You don't know do you?
When you are moving into your new home it be your choice to have what you want in your home how they want it. It is not always possible for people with disabilities to have their choice because that choice is very often made by the person or people who are helping them. Not everyone has the same taste as one another, this choice gets control ed by non - disabled people nine times out of ten, when it should be the choice of the person with a disability. Sometimes the helper and the person with a disability will agrees but that is not the point. The helper should not guess what what the person wants they should ask them first. The person who is looking after you, caring for you and helping you could be your Mother, Father, other family member, key work, support worker, link worker, carer or etc.
The reason why I am writing about moving house is because I have just moved myself. Lucky for me it has been worth the stress of the last few days. I think my Mother could have done with someone to help her even though we had a few members of the family to help. Society tends to think families have all the time in the world. These services don't understand that families have other lives or should we blame that on the government? A lot could be down to management, one hand does not know what the other hand is doing. People get the difference answers to one question from difference members of staff. It's either one answer of another to the rules of running a service people should use common sense.
My new flat has turned out to be very nice, mostly have cream and brown to match in my living room. The carpet is a cream with brown spots all the way through. Pictures and light fittings need to be soughed. There are not many plug sockets though, I guess it's because years ago there weren't any computers so there weren't many things to plug in.
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