Awareness of the Learning Disability Advocacy group.

Learning Disability Advocacy group.

Tim Hodge my partner will be 2nd manger and admin of this group and Jen will be a relief manager and admin.

Those of you who were added to the Disabled Advocacy group that was ran by my old profile will the Learning Disability group is a replacement of the last group but more to it.

I am sorry to say I guess I have bored you the safety rules because of me going away for Christmas as I said but it’s for everyone’s safety, plus I dare say a fair few members may come to join us, if Tim or and Jen are free to add them. I will myself if I get access to my new face book profile while I am away.

Just to let you know guys that I have created this group for a purpose that purpose is for you enjoy it safely. Please make use of the group! It isn’t just about the safety rules; it’s about disabilities, health problems and Advocacy.

 Please add post, videos and reports that are to do with disabilities, health problems and Advocacy. How can you empower someone with disabilities and health problems to have their rights, voice heard and etc with the right support?

Take a look at things like the PCP Person Centered planning.

Invite professions and Advocates along but let’s know beforehand so they can learn about the balance of people with disabilities and health problems having the balance between independence and support.

Hi professions who work in the field of Learning Disability and Mental Health student and trained, this includes the students I teach such as the Learning Disability nurses. This could be a change to learn off other people with disabilities and health problems the awareness of disabilities and health problems, even Mental Health problems as well.

For over the last year I have been running a Disabled Advocacy group Face book, which I started a year after I became and Advocacy worker. The reason why it has took till now to make you aware is because now my numbers of members of the group have grown so therefore I am trying to grow the purpose of the group into Learning Disability and Mental Awareness as well as General Advocacy, this is where you could learn off other people with disabilities and health problems as well as myself. As you may well know it’s hard for people with disabilities and health problems to access employment, once the purposes of this group isn’t only here Advocacy but for those who want to raise awareness of Learning disability and Health problems to such profession as yourself.
I have asked the members of the group and I have had four agreements so far if they would be happy for me to invite such professions as yourself to our group so you can learn about Learning Disability and Mental Health awareness on all topics that people with disabilities and health problems face compared to other people as far as the barriers are concern. One example I have already raised is employment where there’s a lot barriers around there.

Please be aware that there may be family members, parents, parent, friends and partners of people with disabilities and health problems by their choice if they want them to become members with them as well as people like yourselves who work in the field of Learning Disability and Mental Health. 

I will not accept any crime, abuse, threading, swearing, falling out, no viruses, no hacking or discrimination in any group I run thank you.

Hi profession who work in the field of Learning Disability and Mental Health student and trained. This could be a change to learn off other people with disabilities and health problems the awareness of disabilities and health problems, even Mental Health problems as well.

For over the last year I have been running a Disabled Advocacy group Face book, which I started a year after I became and Advocacy worker. The reason why it has took till now to make you aware is because now my numbers of members of the group have grown so therefore I am trying to grow the purpose of the group into Learning Disability and Mental Awareness as well as General Advocacy, this is where you could learn off other people with disabilities and health problems as well as myself. As you may well know it’s hard for people with disabilities and health problems to access employment, once the purposes of this group isn’t only here Advocacy but for those who want to raise awareness of Learning disability and Health problems to such profession as yourself.

I have asked the members of the group and I have had four agreements so far if they would be happy for me to invite such professions as yourself to our group so you can learn about Learning Disability and Mental Health awareness on all topics that people with disabilities and health problems face compared to other people as far as the barriers are concern. One example I have already raised is employment where there’s a lot barriers around there.

If I get more agreements than disagreements then you are invited to our group. Please respect the members of the group’s wishes if I get more disagreements, if that happens in respect of my group sorry to say you won’t be invited but please be patience with us, I will let know either way as soon as I get lot of my replies off my members thanks you. If a lot of the group don’t agree they will have their own private reasons why not so please respect thank you.

Please be aware that there may be family members, parent, parent, friends and partners of people with disabilities and health problems by their choice if they want them to become members with them as well as people like yourselves who work in the field of Learning Disability and Mental Health.     

Here is a new update of the safety rules as this is a new group running from a new Face book profile.

·       Since most people have said there’s been a good many people who have had internet hacking on Face book plus myself with the viruses I had on pc.

·       This has now made me a little stricter than I was on the groups on my old profile. It may sound harsh of me but it’s for all our safety.

·       When I write these rules it doesn’t mean I distrust you but new members could join us as time goes on. We can never judge someone before we know them but anyone could be anyone.

·       This is a Learning Disability Advocacy group to do with disabilities, health problems and Advocacy.

·       Advocacy is to balance empower and support to the rights of the lives of people with disabilities and health problems.

·       Don’t ask someone to the group unless they, myself, Tim or and Jen are aware. (Please let us know.)

·       No bullying or hate crime, if you face any of this off anyone in this group please report to me, Tim or Jen, then they will be removed.

·       Nothing sexual in post, videos or writing, you can raise awareness of learning disabilities, health problems and sexual health through.

·       No advertising product.

·       No talk of drugs unless it’s certain awareness of disabilities and health problems.

·       No poin pictures to the group any member’s profile, if member of this group does anything on your profile we give rights to report it to us then we will remove them.

·       If by any chance to you have very strong dislike towards someone and they are bugging you that much, please leave the group in respect of the other members, you don’t have to give a reason unless you want to.

·       I will not accepting no falling out in groups I run, report the person to us if they are causing you any harm in any way, sharp and form.

·       If you are aware of anyone breaking these rules please let us know thank you.

The health of people with disabilities and health problems need to be taken more seriously.

To what people with disabilities and health problems face with GPS is that not everyone has the same experience. What do know is that GPS are not trained in the same way as health professions in the hospitals or other health services that matter.

Due to funding so we are told not all GP surgeries in Britain do Annual Health check – ups.

The government needs to stop making cuts on important things. Health is the worst thing to make cuts. Over the last year at least there’s been talk about the NHS to be private. There’s even a lot of risk of people in proper full time work not able to affront to pay for their health so what chance is there for vulnerable people such as the elderly, people with disabilities, health problems and etc? A lot of people could be in risk of accessing health services in fear of not been able to affront to. It gets to point now people are wasting time trying access services because it seems every service we access has no funding to help to how many times we hear that we start to wonder what the reasons really are. Why do services bother refereeing us to another service when they more than likely have no funding either and those of us who access the services are only on so much money ourselves? Now this is a risk of cause more cases of depression a lot of people get to the point of going opposite way and that is suffering in silent to a point you there’s nothing at all for you.   

Just to let you know that quite a few years ago Mencap reported on their website that people with disabilities and health problems are in risk of dying before the age of 50 so these health check –up are very important.  The fact that there’s a risk of us only living until before we are fact, then people from the age of 40 to say 47 should be getting tested for such things as heart attacks, strokes and etc. This shouldn’t just apply to vulnerable people but everyone.

There are very few with disabilities and health problems that are lucky enough to live over 50.  A lot of causes of the risk of vulnerable lives being lost are very often down medial neglect and what are very common now are people having their benefits cut where they are in risk of hunger, for eg; flue because many are not be able to affront to put heating on in the winter and even worst risk of homelessness.

The lives of people with disabilities and health problems matter as much as everyone’s.

 It’s so wrong just because we are vulnerable that doesn’t give people the rights to think that our lives don’t matter because they do as much as yours.

 I have said in most reports it’s a feeling as if we are too much hard work for the country, we cost the country a lot of money.

 Everyone is blame for something no is completely bad but no one is perfect but no one should be blamed for how we are put on the planet. No one can be blame for what life gave us to start with or even during in our lives.

These things need to be checked because otherwise it makes a harder job for Learning Disability nurses but all the same these things can’t be neglected. Put yourself into a vulnerable person’s shoes and anyone else’s for that matter what would you if you were in these situations yourself? Every human someone’s family member, son, daughter, even friend, partner, husband, wife and etc just like you are. Put yourself in their families’ shoes.

Over the years people with disabilities and health problems have died through say either neglect in the hospitals very often due to a lack of staff, lack of communication with either the GPS or the hospitals. This is where the GPS need to be trained to treat people with disabilities and health problems. This is where at least twice year health checkups need to be provided in every surgery but again same old story not enough or no funding. Why is money spend on the least important things, which causes the most important things to be neglected? Health is most important. Someone doesn’t have to be in pain to have something wrong with them and those are the things GPS need to be mostly looking for. Nine times out ten someone with disabilities and health problems could be only aware they are unwell if something is hurting or they are feeling pain. It can be hard to notice these things before it gets to the stage preventing that person having to go into hospital.

 http://www.communicationpeople.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Getting-ready-for-my-health-check-easy-read-web.pdf

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/10/27/deaths-prompt-call-learning-disabled-adults-get-named-care-coordinators/

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/614822/Jeremy-Hunt-faces-sack-misleading-public-weekend-hospital-deaths

Sara’s teaching programme for the 1st year students University Of Wolverhampton Walsall Campus.

https://youtu.be/9qkk4QY4bes

What we have we done what do we need to?

Due to half term I guess you won’t be studying a lot at the moment but not to worry, you don’t have to and no rush and it's half term. I wouldn't except you to study all the time but when you do, I have written down in the teaching programme what is a head us next so if you do have chance please prepare yourself, if not not to worry to we can all help each other as a group when the time comes. I understand you could be on placement as well. I am just letting know about the sessions we and have done and the sessions I plain to come. I will put this report in an email to Lynne which she should get after half term, I guess soon as she’s aware of it she will make you aware too.

Like I said I know you guys are Student Learning Disability nurses but the idea of you learning these topics, is the awareness of how everyday issues can have affect on the health of people with disabilities and health problems.  

As for the that report about the Jobcentre and that, there's no stress,  pres sager or time limit when you study it. It's just some update information of what people with disabilities and health problems are facing with benefits, support and employment theses days. I can't promise but maybe a session could be planned where we could do some work on that a piece of work. Ever so often we will do a bit of revision on each topic. 

Session 1 I introduced myself and a short bit of information of what I will be teaching, which was. What are learning disabilities and health problems? What kind of disabilities and health problems are there? Communication and Accessible information.

  Second session. We did your first module was on the 23^rd September 2015. You introduced yourselves to me, Lynne, each other and we introduced ourselves . I spoke to you about PCP Person Centered planning how that works, the balance between support and independence. You told me different forms of communication, which I listed down on the board. I can’t say when but I hope to do a session where we go through what disabilities and health problems there are and how different  people communicate with these disabilities and health problems. Very well done for what you have all done so far.

3rd session.  was the Benefit cuts 21^st October 2015, just a little bit of reference advice. I can understand this reference could be very hard to get hold of but if you can get hold of it, there’s a lot of useful information, I don't except to look at it all the time but a bit of a time and learn as much as what you can before it goes out of date if you do get access to it. It’s the Disability Rights Handbook, I never thought about it until my sister bought me a copy for my birthday. I can understand as far as buying is concerned it may be too pricey and the same to download it as well. You may be able to get a copy from the library, which may better because it’s only dated from the April 2015 to April 2016. It’s according whether or not the libraries have a copy. You may able to ask even if the University library if there's a copy there.  I don’t want to keep on teaching the benefit cuts every session I do at the University but I may be able to ask Lynne if I could photocopy a page ever so often before the book goes out of date then we can do a bit of work on it or get a copy each for you. WWW.disabilityrightsuk.org

Well done for all of who took part in the Benefit’s cut session, everyone did very well indeed thank you.

Session 4 is to come. Different types of disabilities and health problems.

·       What are learning disabilities and health problems?

·       What kind of disabilities and health problems are there?  

·       How do disabilities and health problems start?

·       What can cause disabilities and health problems?

·       WWW.mencap.org.uk  for learning disabilities.

·       Tap your search engine in Mind, Rethink or and Healthy Mind for health problems. 

• I forgot to add to the first and second session is to find out how much difference there is if any between learning disabilities and learning difficulties.
• If there's time in the next session we may do some work on PCP Person Centered Planning if not we can plan it for another session.

Session 5.  (Accessible information easy read.)

More sessions are to be planned from there. I will also ask Lynne to forward this report in an email to Steven and Mick to share with the 3^rd year and for Lynne to share it with the 2^nd year too. 

Here is an aware of the lack of support disabled people are now getting with employment and that.

More jobcentre recordings: We can’t help disabled claimants at this jobcentre. You’ll have to go elsewhere

Posted on October 26, 2015

Here’s a very recent example of the extraordinary lack of support that disabled JSA claimants can find at jobcentres when they’re looking work.

In the recording below, an adviser at a north London jobcentre actually tells me that advisers at this jobcentre can’t give extra job search help or support to the disabled claimant who I’m with. The adviser doesn’t try to pretend otherwise. He says that the jobcentre can’t help this disabled man, because there are no Disability Employment Advisers at this jobcentre now (DEAs are advisers who are meant to have additional skills and time for disabled benefit claimants). Nobody else at the jobcentre can give the man extra support. The adviser said that the man’s only choice was to move jobcentres to one that does still have specialist disability advisers. That was the end of that. So much, I thought, for the DWP’s claims to me by recent email that disabled benefit claimants can expect “tailored support specific to their individual needs,” at jobcentres. These DWP claims of “tailored support” for disabled JSA claimants are rot as far as I’m concerned – as great a lie as the DWP’s use of fake benefit claimants and quotes in leaflets. It seems to me that when the DWP talks about “tailored support” for disabled claimants at jobcentres, the DWP pretends to offer a service that it does not.

The disabled JSA claimant in this case is a 52-year-old man who has learning and literacy difficulties. He worked for years as a kitchen and general assistant, but hasn’t found work since he was made redundant from his last job about six years ago. I’ve attended his JSA sign on sessions with him for over a year (we both wonder why we still bother a lot of the time). This man struggles with writing and spelling in particular. We’ve spent much time filling in job applications together. Here’s an example of an application form he filled in where he copied words that I wrote in my notebook into the form. You can see the trouble that he has writing coherent sentences even when he copies text:

This man often says that he is keen for a job. He says that he attends job fairs and when we met last week, we arranged to meet again to fill in application forms for porter and general assistant roles (he can’t use a computer, so needs other people to make online applications). He needs help to fill in the forms. He says that he’s lost his chance at jobs in the past, because he couldn’t complete forms to an acceptable standard: “I went to a nursing home in Enfield which I really should have got in there, because it was just a simple kitchen assistant job. No – the reason they give me was Oh, there were some mistakes in the application form and the spelling.”

That’s why at this man’s JSA sign on meeting last week, I asked the jobcentre adviser if anyone at the jobcentre could help this guy fill in his forms. The adviser said No, nobody could. The reason given? – this jobcentre no longer had a Disability Employment Adviser to provide that sort of support, as I say. The DEA left a few months ago, wasn’t replaced and nobody had taken on the extra duties. (The now-departed DEA at this jobcentre told me earlier this year that nobody else at the jobcentre would have time to help disabled claimants when she left). The jobcentre’s advice for this man was that he should move jobcentres, to Tottenham, if he wanted any help. There were still two DEAs working at the Tottenham jobcentre. And… that was it. I was sitting there thinking – great. Iain Duncan Smith wants to force more sick or disabled people onto job-seekers’ allowance and this is his idea of tailored job search support – a sad shrug from a jobcentre adviser and an instruction to go elsewhere:

Recording:

Transcript:

Me – “is there any facility like now that [DEA name removed] is gone for someone to help with an application? I mean I’m quite happy to help, but I just wondered if the jobcentre offered that kind of service… [to help with] the writing… this kind of stuff…

C – we don’t have ….that’s what I was explaining to him [the claimant], I don’t know if he was here with you, that before leaving [DEA name removed] knew that there would be no one to take over. She told me that she was advising him to go back to the Tottenham jobcentre, because Tottenham they have two [DEAs]

M – Yeah, he just has trouble getting there. So here they don’t, really, basically.”

A couple of things here.

The first thing is that moving jobcentres can be very difficult for someone who needs some support and finds change very hard to cope with. This man had already moved jobcentres from Kilburn when he was rehoused earlier this year. He hasn’t coped well with the move. He’s often angry and belligerent. Another move to another jobcentre would not be easy. He resists the idea absolutely. God only knows if he’d have to move again at some point, as well. The adviser we saw last week said that he expected the number of DEAs to drop across jobcentres, too – “to save money,” he said. Appointments at jobcentres already get cancelled because of a lack of staff. I have turned up for a number of jobcentre or work programme meetings over the past year, only to find that they’ve been cancelled due to a staff shortage. I can’t imagine this situation or the numbers improving.

The second point I’d make is that Disability Employment Advisers aren’t always brilliantly helpful anyway. I’m not convinced that “tailored support” for sick or disabled people is their exact goal. I think that their focus is governments: to push everybody into unpaid or very low-paid work. The DEAs I’ve met seem obsessed with pushing disabled people into unpaid work, or with lining disabled people up for the work programme and low-paid work choice jobs. Earlier this year, this man and I met several times with the DEA who recently departed this jobcentre. She ignored this man’s concerns about his diabetic illness ( you can hear a recording here ) and spent our meetings trying to sign this guy up for voluntary work, or for work choice programmes with Seetec. She didn’t fill in applications forms either, just by the way. She pushed reams of forms over the desk and expected me to talk the guy into agreeing to sign up for work choice, and, presumably, to fill in the forms if he did agree. There was nothing tailored going on there.

You see my point. Our fortnightly visits to the jobcentre are utterly hopeless. I’ve introduced a post-sign on lunch at Wetherspoons into the outing just so that we have something to look forward to and can chat like human beings. I’m guessing that this guy has been parked by the jobcentre in some way: he’s been unemployed for a long time, he’s getting older and he isn’t well (he has trouble with his diabetes and seems to struggle to manage his sugar levels). He has become very defensive and resistant as time has dragged on. I’d say that his various jobcentres have stuck him on some sort of Too Hard to Fix list. It may also be that decent advisers don’t want to torture him any more than they have to. It seems likely these people know full well that his only real options outside the jobcentre are unpaid work, or very low-paid, insecure, manual jobs. That being the case, they sign him on and let him go. And so on we go with the charade: backwards and forwards we travel to that jobcentre. We sit, see the jobcentre adviser and get that week’s job search signed off. Occasionally, an adviser makes noises about the work programme. We hear those noises and then we leave. I suppose that sooner or later, someone will force him onto another work programme course (he’s been on four).

I keep trying to work out what is really going on here. This guy is older and unwell, and now he’s belligerent. The jobcentre is just a place that guys in his situation are dumped these days. I expect he’ll soon be joined by plenty more people in similar situations. I already talk with other people in similar situations. As I say, Iain Duncan Smith plans to push more disabled people off disability benefits and onto job seekers’ allowance as people are expected to find work. His department claims that all will be well, because jobcentres are geared up to provide the support that sick or disabled people need to find decent work. That DWP email again: “Job seekers now have access to dedicated work coaches, who are trained to provide tailored support specific to their individual needs.” I’m saying I Think Not. This service isn’t tailored. It’s threadbare. There’s a disabled woman I attend another London jobcentre with: we’ve turned up twice to scheduled meetings with a work coach this year only to be told at the door that the work coach couldn’t make it.

It is high time that the DWP and work programme providers gave us some transparency with this “system.” Reporters should be given free access to work programme and work choice placements, and jobcentres. Let’s see what this tailored support really looks like all over. If Iain Duncan Smith is really going to shove more sick or disabled people into jobcentres, they will need something better than this. I can’t imagine that they’ll get it.

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13 THOUGHTS ON “MORE JOBCENTRE RECORDINGS: WE CAN’T HELP DISABLED CLAIMANTS AT THIS JOBCENTRE. YOU’LL HAVE TO GO ELSEWHERE”

1.   Dino on October 26, 2015 at 15:46 said:

When I lived near Leeds I used to shop in Castle ford and passed a job center on the way to ALDI, this wasn’t the job center I had to sign on at the one I signed on at was 9.2 miles from my home this one was just over 4 miles away, 4.4 to be exact, when I queried it with them they said that Here is an aware of the lack of support disabled people are now getting with employment and that.

More jobcentre recordings: We can’t help disabled claimants at this jobcentre. You’ll have to go elsewhere

Posted on October 26, 2015

Here’s a very recent example of the extraordinary lack of support that disabled JSA claimants can find at jobcentres when they’re looking work.

In the recording below, an adviser at a north London jobcentre actually tells me that advisers at this jobcentre can’t give extra job search help or support to the disabled claimant who I’m with. The adviser doesn’t try to pretend otherwise. He says that the jobcentre can’t help this disabled man, because there are no Disability Employment Advisers at this jobcentre now (DEAs are advisers who are meant to have additional skills and time for disabled benefit claimants). Nobody else at the jobcentre can give the man extra support. The adviser said that the man’s only choice was to move jobcentres to one that does still have specialist disability advisers. That was the end of that. So much, I thought, for the DWP’s claims to me by recent email that disabled benefit claimants can expect “tailored support specific to their individual needs,” at jobcentres. These DWP claims of “tailored support” for disabled JSA claimants are rot as far as I’m concerned – as great a lie as the DWP’s use of fake benefit claimants and quotes in leaflets. It seems to me that when the DWP talks about “tailored support” for disabled claimants at jobcentres, the DWP pretends to offer a service that it does not.

The disabled JSA claimant in this case is a 52-year-old man who has learning and literacy difficulties. He worked for years as a kitchen and general assistant, but hasn’t found work since he was made redundant from his last job about six years ago. I’ve attended his JSA sign on sessions with him for over a year (we both wonder why we still bother a lot of the time). This man struggles with writing and spelling in particular. We’ve spent much time filling in job applications together. Here’s an example of an application form he filled in where he copied words that I wrote in my notebook into the form. You can see the trouble that he has writing coherent sentences even when he copies text:

This man often says that he is keen for a job. He says that he attends job fairs and when we met last week, we arranged to meet again to fill in application forms for porter and general assistant roles (he can’t use a computer, so needs other people to make online applications). He needs help to fill in the forms. He says that he’s lost his chance at jobs in the past, because he couldn’t complete forms to an acceptable standard: “I went to a nursing home in Enfield which I really should have got in there, because it was just a simple kitchen assistant job. No – the reason they give me was Oh, there were some mistakes in the application form and the spelling.”

That’s why at this man’s JSA sign on meeting last week, I asked the jobcentre adviser if anyone at the jobcentre could help this guy fill in his forms. The adviser said No, nobody could. The reason given? – this jobcentre no longer had a Disability Employment Adviser to provide that sort of support, as I say. The DEA left a few months ago, wasn’t replaced and nobody had taken on the extra duties. (The now-departed DEA at this jobcentre told me earlier this year that nobody else at the jobcentre would have time to help disabled claimants when she left). The jobcentre’s advice for this man was that he should move jobcentres, to Tottenham, if he wanted any help. There were still two DEAs working at the Tottenham jobcentre. And… that was it. I was sitting there thinking – great. Iain Duncan Smith wants to force more sick or disabled people onto jobseekers’ allowance and this is his idea of tailored job search support – a sad shrug from a jobcentre adviser and an instruction to go elsewhere:

Recording:

Transcript:

Me – “is there any facility like now that [DEA name removed] is gone for someone to help with an application? I mean I’m quite happy to help, but I just wondered if the jobcentre offered that kind of service… [to help with] the writing… this kind of stuff…

C – we don’t have ….that’s what I was explaining to him [the claimant], I don’t know if he was here with you, that before leaving [DEA name removed] knew that there would be no one to take over. She told me that she was advising him to go back to the Tottenham jobcentre, because Tottenham they have two [DEAs]

M – Yeah, he just has trouble getting there. So here they don’t, really, basically.”

A couple of things here.

The first thing is that moving jobcentres can be very difficult for someone who needs some support and finds change very hard to cope with. This man had already moved jobcentres from Kilburn when he was rehoused earlier this year. He hasn’t coped well with the move. He’s often angry and belligerent. Another move to another jobcentre would not be easy. He resists the idea absolutely. God only knows if he’d have to move again at some point, as well. The adviser we saw last week said that he expected the number of DEAs to drop across jobcentres, too – “to save money,” he said. Appointments at jobcentres already get cancelled because of a lack of staff. I have turned up for a number of jobcentre or work programme meetings over the past year, only to find that they’ve been cancelled due to a staff shortage. I can’t imagine this situation or the numbers improving.

The second point I’d make is that Disability Employment Advisers aren’t always brilliantly helpful anyway. I’m not convinced that “tailored support” for sick or disabled people is their exact goal. I think that their focus is governments: to push everybody into unpaid or very low-paid work. The DEAs I’ve met seem obsessed with pushing disabled people into unpaid work, or with lining disabled people up for the work programme and low-paid work choice jobs. Earlier this year, this man and I met several times with the DEA who recently departed this jobcentre. She ignored this man’s concerns about his diabetic illness ( you can hear a recording here ) and spent our meetings trying to sign this guy up for voluntary work, or for work choice programmes with Seetec. She didn’t fill in applications forms either, just by the way. She pushed reams of forms over the desk and expected me to talk the guy into agreeing to sign up for work choice, and, presumably, to fill in the forms if he did agree. There was nothing tailored going on there.

You see my point. Our fortnightly visits to the jobcentre are utterly hopeless. I’ve introduced a post-sign on lunch at Wetherspoons into the outing just so that we have something to look forward to and can chat like human beings. I’m guessing that this guy has been parked by the jobcentre in some way: he’s been unemployed for a long time, he’s getting older and he isn’t well (he has trouble with his diabetes and seems to struggle to manage his sugar levels). He has become very defensive and resistant as time has dragged on. I’d say that his various jobcentres have stuck him on some sort of Too Hard to Fix list. It may also be that decent advisers don’t want to torture him any more than they have to. It seems likely these people know full well that his only real options outside the jobcentre are unpaid work, or very low-paid, insecure, manual jobs. That being the case, they sign him on and let him go. And so on we go with the charade: backwards and forwards we travel to that jobcentre. We sit, see the jobcentre adviser and get that week’s job search signed off. Occasionally, an adviser makes noises about the work programme. We hear those noises and then we leave. I suppose that sooner or later, someone will force him onto another work programme course (he’s been on four).

I keep trying to work out what is really going on here. This guy is older and unwell, and now he’s belligerent. The jobcentre is just a place that guys in his situation are dumped these days. I expect he’ll soon be joined by plenty more people in similar situations. I already talk with other people in similar situations. As I say, Iain Duncan Smith plans to push more disabled people off disability benefits and onto job seekers’ allowance as people are expected to find work. His department claims that all will be well, because jobcentres are geared up to provide the support that sick or disabled people need to find decent work. That DWP email again: “Job seekers now have access to dedicated work coaches, who are trained to provide tailored support specific to their individual needs.” I’m saying I Think Not. This service isn’t tailored. It’s threadbare. There’s a disabled woman I attend another London jobcentre with: we’ve turned up twice to scheduled meetings with a work coach this year only to be told at the door that the work coach couldn’t make it.

It is high time that the DWP and work programme providers gave us some transparency with this “system.” Reporters should be given free access to work programme and work choice placements, and jobcentres. Let’s see what this tailored support really looks like all over. If Iain Duncan Smith is really going to shove more sick or disabled people into jobcentres, they will need something better than this. I can’t imagine that they’ll get it.

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13 THOUGHTS ON “MORE JOBCENTRE RECORDINGS: WE CAN’T HELP DISABLED CLAIMANTS AT THIS JOBCENTRE. YOU’LL HAVE TO GO ELSEWHERE”

1.   Dino on October 26, 2015 at 15:46 said:

When I lived near Leeds I used to shop in Castle ford and passed a job center on the way to ALDI, this wasn’t the job center I had to sign on at the one I signed on at was 9.2 miles from my home this one was just over 4 miles away, 4.4 to be exact, when I queried it with them they said that JC+ was not in my area.

Reply ↓

2.   Dude Swheatie of the Kilburn Unemployed on October 26, 2015 at 16:14 said:

Re “tailored support specific to [our] individual needs”: Disability Equality Trainer M T has advised that the word ‘requirements’ is more powerful than ‘needs’. ‘Needs’ is a word too much linked to ‘neediness’, whereas ‘requirements suggest rights, responsibilities and authority.

And “tailored support” presupposes proper assessment of what our disabilities really involve. Proper assessment in itself would involve substantial up-front investment. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale tests I went through with Camden Learning Disability Services near my 60th birthday indicate that for some intellectual functioning categories, my scores are ‘borderline’ on ‘learning disability’ range that is set at or below IQ score of 70. The subsequent report from CLDS gives me great documentation for ESA ‘Work Capability Assessment’ purposes, but no entitlement to even a formal diagnosis from CLDS that would formally diagnose my impairment/disability as dyspraxia.

Such a formal diagnosis, I am told, would cost me hundreds of pounds. So in effect, all the learning-and-co-learning hoops and hurdles I have gone through over the decades since 1978 when a Manpower Services Commission-run ‘Employment Rehabilitation Center's ‘Occupational Psychologist’ [sic] told me that my career difficulties stemmed from “a birth defect” have befitted me nothing in terms of employment credit.

Right wing ‘welfare reform’ is not really about rewarding effort and ‘saving disabled people from worthlessness’, but the privatization of the welfare state and screwing the economically vulnerable. Benefit sanctions and threat of sanctions are really a means of unconscionable global corporations finding commercial profit in exploiting the people they would previously have ‘parked’ as not worth the current time of day.

 JC+ was not in my area.

Reply ↓

2.   Dude Swheatie of the Kilburn Unemployed on October 26, 2015 at 16:14 said:

Re “tailored support specific to [our] individual needs”: Disability Equality Trainer M T has advised that the word ‘requirements’ is more powerful than ‘needs’. ‘Needs’ is a word too much linked to ‘neediness’, whereas ‘requirements suggest rights, responsibilities and authority.

And “tailored support” presupposes proper assessment of what our disabilities really involve. Proper assessment in itself would involve substantial up-front investment. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale tests I went through with Camden Learning Disability Services near my 60th birthday indicate that for some intellectual functioning categories, my scores are ‘borderline’ on ‘learning disability’ range that is set at or below IQ score of 70. The subsequent report from CLDS gives me great documentation for ESA ‘Work Capability Assessment’ purposes, but no entitlement to even a formal diagnosis from CLDS that would formally diagnose my impairment/disability as dyspraxia.

Such a formal diagnosis, I am told, would cost me hundreds of pounds. So in effect, all the learning-and-co-learning hoops and hurdles I have gone through over the decades since 1978 when a Manpower Services Commission-run ‘Employment Rehabilitation Center's ‘Occupational Psychologist’ [sic] told me that my career difficulties stemmed from “a birth defect” have benefited me nothing in terms of employment credit.

Right wing ‘welfare reform’ is not really about rewarding effort and ‘saving disabled people from worthlessness’, but the privatization of the welfare state and screwing the economically vulnerable. Benefit sanctions and threat of sanctions are really a means of unconscionable global corporations finding commercial profit in exploiting the people they would previously have ‘parked’ as not worth the current time of day.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smith-reveals-job-advisors-could-be-placed-in-food-banks-a6711741.html

History of how people with learning disabilities and health problems were treated.

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 sterilization 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 none 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 let’s have far less Hitler’s 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 without support by such places like DWP.  If you or anyone you know has faced these experiences you are more than welcome to email me on sarajgorman@gmail.com

EXAMPLES OF HOW LIFE WAS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN HISTORY.

Today the hospitals would have been paying a lot out of money for families who have experienced
neglected births. I was born with lack of oxygen to
the brain. This is was what caused me to have autism, epilepsy, dyslexia and may be even dyspraxia, which most things weren't known about. I know I never been badly disabled but I could have done without with what I was born. My Family couldn't claim any more in those day or they didn't know they could. I was born at the Beeches
old Nursing home on the Tettenhall road Wolverhampton; they neglected my Mum when she was having me. It doesn't mean I would have expected any of the money. In those days you had Terry toweling nappies and you were lucky if you had a washing machine, my Mum didn't. My family could have done with the money at that time because I had to wear nappies longer that I should have. It doesn't mean to say that all these unnecessary things have stopped today. We would like to see that families and carers of people with disabilities get more support in everything that what we did.

I know I keep saying that it's about time people with disabilities started training and educating non - disabled people mostly to learn to understand is as human beings. Non - disabled people need to learn that we try very hard to learn from our mistakes. Understanding us would be a big help to create a better future from having to learn from a very dark past now it's the 21st century.

All my family had extra hard work with me due to my disability, support was very little or not at all.

I think it took years to diagnosis my disability, now I don't think even now we are really sure whether I have autism or not. We know I have a disability of some sort for sure. Who knows if we have been told the truth or not? We know for sure that I have epilepsy because I had it in the past and it came back.

As for being hyperactive little did we know that too much sugar and may be even too much salt can cause some people be hyperactive mainly children, even now that we have been told more things, who really knows for sure?

Please drop me an email if you have any views or need any support the kind of subject I have just written about now. My email address is for all subjects to do with disabilities on this website. sarajgorman@gmail.com

         We are hard work for society.

·       We are a danger to society.

·       We cost society too much.

·       We are to blame for our disabilities and health problems as far as society is concern.

·       We are made to feel guilty and ashamed to have been born in the first place.

·       We are only human just like you are so how can society make people with disabilities and disabilities and health problems feel life is worth living?

·       No wonder the rate of Anxiety and Depression is high.

·       What can society learn from the dark past to create a bright future?

·       How much has got better?

·       How much has got worse?

·       What’s good?

·       What’s bad?

·       What isn’t good enough?

History of learning disability and health problems.

·       http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/content/assets/pdf/publications/starting-today-background-paper-1.pdf

·       http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/354384/Shaping_the_Future_Vision_document_July_2006.pdf

·       search.tb.ask.com/search/GGmain.jhtml?searchfor=history%2C+present+and+future+of+learning+disabilities+and+health+problems.&st=tab&ptb=EAC85840-C98E-43C2-BF3C-

B3E438262E87&n=781aa443&ind=2015011907&ct=SS&pg=

One straight answer to one question.

Services need to let all their staff know of any changes in rules not only for people with disabilities and health problems but for everyone for example; can you support to fill my benefit form please, it needs to be posted for Monday? The answer shouldn't be yes and no off different people someone should know sure, it should be yes or no not two answers to one question one answer to one question.

https://www.makaton.org/

Communication website

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.co.uk/makaton.html

https://www.mencap.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2008-04/make%20it%20clear%20apr09.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-communication/accessible-communication-formats

   

Transport information. Some people have no sense of direction mainly those people with Dyslexia, Anxiety and Depression. A map that stands out with different colours would be rather useful for most people whereas others it could be 123, ABC or and bullet points for example.

·       Turn left.

·       Turn right.

·       Straight on.

Some people may want that format in colours for example.

·       Turn left

·       Turn right

·       Straight on

Person centred planning.

http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/help-information/information-for-teachers/transition-to-adulthood/using-person-centred-planning/

https://www.mencap.org.uk/our-services/personal-support-services/advocacy/empower-me

http://www.batias.com/

Today’s health care for people with learning disabilities and health problems.

https://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_7479_IHaL2010-3HealthInequality2010.pdf

https://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_7479_IHaL2010-3HealthInequality2010.pdf

Teaching programme.

Paper Aeroplane. 

Instructions were easy to follow.

 For example someone like me with Dyspraxia may have problems with get the paper straight and equal.

 This task is an example of teaching all kinds of things such as wiring plug, putting and light bulb, they may have followed your instructions correctly their hands like mine may not be strong enough for example to be able to connect the wires safe and secure into the plug.

 A duvet on a bed cover might not be put into the condors tight enough.

A lot of equipment has changed compared to years ago, kettles now turn off on their own but they never used, it used to seem as if the kettle was never going to stop boiling.

 I was at least fourteen until I made my Mum a hot cup of coffee.

Microwaves are easier and safer than cookers for people like me to use but then food doesn't stay hot for long.

  Those who need a lot of support to cook fresh food can’t always get that support to do so. Now that a lot of care and support services need to be paid for not everyone has enough on their benefits to pay for it.

Clear pictures and easy words could be another easy way for a person to follow instructions to learn do things step by step but they may need support to do and complete the task. For other people they may need support to read the instructions but they may do and complete the task fine so therefore you won’t find everyone has the same strengths and weakness.      http://www.housingcare.org/service/type-12-aids-equipment.aspx

http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/24052/Disabled-people---specialist-equipment-home-adaptations-and-aids

http://www.disability-grants.org/grants-for-disabled-adults-general.html

https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/factsheets/53

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prime-Instant-Video/b/ref=dvm_uk_mer_site_prlpv2_6_14?ie=UTF8&node=3280626031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1QQ4VHKBH2MZXFVSYA6R&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=516424127&pf_rd_i=1000784693

http://www.focusondisability.org.uk/links-1.html

http://classroom.synonym.com/signs-students-lacking-reading-comprehension-19964.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/readingdiffs.html

http://medvideos.org/video/166/developmental-coordination-disorder-dyspraxia

https://www.scope.org.uk/Support/Disabled-people/Disabled-People/Trendsetters/Confidence-and-Self-Esteem/What-is-confidence-and-self-

esteem?utm_campaign=trendsetters&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc

Making and getting phone calls.

Mainly when making an important call you can always get to speak someone right away. Nine times out of ten you get the answer and the person can talk too fast you. Please leave a message after the tone that is all well and good but not always when something is important, which can depend when that person can reply to your message in the first place. It can work the same with emails and texts. I find they talk too fast when they say press this number for that and that number for this.

 Without discriminating not many people with disabilities and health problems can understand foreign languages, mainly those of us who have problems with our speech which can make it hard for us to learn foreign languages. This can be very hard if we have made a call to a service and even harder if we get a call that we don’t except. 

Wednesday 23^rd September 2015

Memory problems.

·       What causes memory problems?

·       Dyslexia

·       Dyspraxia

·       Dimension

·       Side effects from most medications

·       Epilepsy

How can you support memory problems?

Accessible information (Easy ready).

Forms of communication.

· Give enough time to listen to your patient mainly if they haven’t bought anyone with them for support.

·       Mackinton

·       Pecks

·       Sign language

·       Flash cards

·       Brail

·       Touch

·       Body language

·       Eye pointing

·       Tap pack

·       IT Communication

·       Lip reading

·       Face expression happy face, sad face or and OK face.

·       Behavior

·       Symbol time table

·       Thumps up

·       Thumps down

·       Life stories and pictures

·       written communication

·       Play studies

·       ABC boards

·       Talking

·       Short form of communication

·       Health Passport

·                  Verbal

·                  Nonverbal 

·                  Visual

·                  Non-visual 

·                  ·        Sing-along for people with Autism

·        ·       

·                  ·        Talking mats

·                  ·        Widget

·                  ·        Symbol world

·                  ·        Clear For All

What disabilities and health problems would you use those forms of communication for?

We need to make sure the patient understands all the information, the information needs to be accessible.

·        Easy Read

·        Clear written/audio information

·        No Jargon!

https://www.mencap.org.uk/about-learning-disability/information-professionals/communication/communicating-people-learning-disability

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/speechandcommunicationdisorders.html

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/communication-problems-in-children-with-autism-spectrum-disorder.aspx

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9213/health.htm

  

Your feedback and my feedback to the session.

Feedback from Colleagues. Sara supported the students first session on this module. She helped them to appreciate the importance of communication. She led this part of the session. She also assisted me with the remainder of the session introducing her and helping the students to do the same.

Feedback from students. The students greatly appreciate the time they have with Sara. They enjoy her contributions to the class and learning situation.

Sara’s feedback. I and my colleague Lynne set up the power point for the students to get to know one another plus we jointed in ourselves too. For example

·        Who are you?

·        What are your likes?

·        What are your dislikes?

The students answered the questions on the Power point by drawing pictures.

I explained to the students what the PCP Person Centred Planning is, which is choice and control, the balance between independence and support.

I asked the students about the forms of communication people with disabilities and health problems use for example Mackinton.

I asked the students to find out about what disabilities and health problems can cause Memory problems? Such as Dyslexia, Dementia and even side effects of most medications.

We even spoke just a bit about (Accessible information) (Easy read.)  

There are no changes to be made.

Sara’s feedback to the students.

Evidence of planning.

 My feedback the first year students University Of Wolverhampton Walsall.

I hope to be doing some work with the students on Person Centred Planning in the future.

Well done to you all for what you have done but your next stage is to study different disabilities and health problems and to how these people communicate with other people.