" How would you support people with disabilities and mental
illness?"
“ Hello, everyone, I will start this lecture by introducing myself,
going through how disabilities can affect life when disabilities happen and
some of the types of disabilities”.
I don’t have any involvement in the University’s course work when
it comes to levels, what is involved in each level etc. Therefore, some things
you may know already, and other things you may not so sorry if I have told you
things you know already.
1.
Some
different types of therapy.
2.
Going
through some of what an Occupational therapist is.
3.
What are mental health and illness are.
My
name is Sara Jane Gorman, Visiting Lecture on Disability and Mental health
awareness for the Success group and Learning Disability team at the University of
Wolverhampton.
My disabilities and
mental health problems are Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Autism, Epilepsy, Anxiety, and
Depression.https://sararevealed.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-difference-between-having.html
Due to
the fact I was born fifty-odd years ago, I was not diagnosed for my conditions
because very little nothing at all was known. However,’ over the years my
family members read up, watched programs, etc to find the symptoms’ matched up
to me. I did ask my GP about the possibility of me being diagnosed with Dyspraxia
and Autism, at the time she told me there was no funding, which was about five
to ten years ago. I feel I could have
had support from childhood if I was able to have got diagnosed back in the
70s and 80s, where I would not have been struggling as much when I was growing
up. However,’ this is not all black and white as hopefully, it will help me to
help you help others similar if not the same as me in today’s world.
It is
important to recognize disabilities, mental health, and other problems, and how
they affect people's lives, and you can
try to support them. There are no tools, aids, etc to support all difficulties
people face but there are some that you could suggest to them, depending on the
problems and the difficulties they face.
Here are some difficulties I faced due to my Dyspraxia.
Dyspraxia
is a hidden physical learning difficulty.
Dyspraxia
affects motor skills and co – conation.
I
struggle to cook, sew, cut my nails, etc.
Dyslexia
causes me to misspell words, get letters and words the wrong way round, missing
words out of sentences, the print may be
too small to read, the text may need too large print, and in some things, I may need
pictures.
When I
was on very strong tablets for Epilepsy, they made me shake and I was clumsy which also could partly be my
Dyspraxia. This made me feel Anxious and depressed.
I have a
small amount of support from my family but not from Support workers, social workers,
or carers but I live by myself. It has taken me years to accept my problems but
with some things, I have found ways of managing things.
As a
child and teenager, I found it hard to accept my problems and make out as if I
was like other people.
I could
have done with support to be able to grip most things but with the right
support, I should be able to learn most things like other people.
I
believe being diagnosed with these problems is important to be able to know the
right support to give.
Also,
as a child, I could have done counseling to support for emotional well-being.
Firstly,
pretty much most disabilities are, linked to mental illness. I cannot speak for
all disabilities and mental illnesses I can only speak for the disabilities and
mental illnesses I face. It is important to accept anything from anyone as each
person you come across is likely to have different strengths and weaknesses. I
know, that with having Autism my Anxiety levels can be high, which can be
easily misunderstood by others around me, not just by people at work and in
education but people socially and at home as well.
As an Occupation Therapist, you
will come across a lot of people who people with disabilities and mental
illnesses are in contact with such as teachers, tutors, managers, staff of
people they work with, families, parents, carers, and support workers, health
professionals, etc, which who you will come into contact with as well.
People with disabilities,
mental illnesses, and other problems do not enjoy asking for help from others,
even though everyone needs help sometimes because having disabilities, mental
illnesses, or other problems affects their lives more so than different people
in different ways. We can feel as if we are hard work to the world, cost too,
much money, are a burden to others, guilty, etc even to a point we feel life is
not worth living. Even though we know that is not our fault and beyond our
control, we can't help that we have no choice, which is depression but at the
same time, a lot of us have had good and bad experiences in our lives when it
comes to supporting. However, the positive thing is having the right tools and
aids to help us live as independently as possible, but naturally, it is not
possible to have the tools, etc with everything we need help with, which is
mostly due to funding and disability benefits only pay for so much.
Before we can
support disabilities and mental illnesses we need to learn about the strengths
and weaknesses people face who disabilities and mental illnesses. I only know
the difficulties I face from my disabilities and mental illnesses.
It is believed that
ADHD Attention Hyperactivity Disorder and Anxiety have a link, which is most
common to be linked to Autism too. For example, finding it hard to focus,
acting without thinking, and finding it hard to sit still.
I see Dyslexia as
an educational learning difficulty, most people see Dyslexia as someone who
cannot read-write, or spell, which is only partly the truth. Where a person
can read, and hear what people say but struggle to remember, as for writing and
spelling, even reading that can vary where something where mostly the person
who could write or and read something the wrong way round or and something
missing, etc. Such as letters, words, numbers, etc. For example, bs, ds,
ds, PS, qs, 26, and 62 could get mixed up, and words missing out from
sentences. We can have stages of having ideas about what to write to going
blank probably as much as most, regardless of, whether our ideas are good
or bad, etc. On the positive side, people with dyslexia can be creative in
different people in different
ways. https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/what-is-dyslexia/
Dyspraxia is mostly
a physical motor skill learning difficulty, which can be linked to Asperous
Syndrome, anxiety, depression, and ADHD. There also can be education
difficulties too if not the same but
similar. https://sararevealed.blogspot.com/2012/ https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/what-is-dyspraxia/
The strength in dyspraxia is mostly being creative but different people in
different ways. http://www.dyspraxicfantastic.com/the-positives/
The difficulties
people with dyspraxia face are mostly physical skills climbing, jumping,
catching a ball, riding a bike, driving, cooking, cleaning, and many more. How
can life be made easy for those with physical difficulties without depending on
others? grippier such as disabled aids to help open tops, lids off
bottles, jars, personal disabled aids, etc, which could be ordered off many
websites such as Amazon, bought from many disabled shops, which may be spent by
disability money, funding of services or
both. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/occupational-therapy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dyspraxia+aids&crid=3I9K4DUNDDRKH&qid=1658928272&sprefix=dyspr%2Caps%2C240&ref=sr_pg_1
https://www.lighthouse-therapy.com/occupational-therapy/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxIOXBhCrARIsAL1QFCZfUQn7FpKGtvfmKDDV_qINd6ossnapD7GkDU7xHf3T6m1VQFTwnb0aAgF_EALw_wcB
https://www.medicinenet.com/what_are_the_three_types_of_learning_disabilities/article.htm
Difference between
a learning disability and a learning difficulty. It is probably possible to have
one or the other or both. In some and if not most cases because it probably does not work this way. Is
it someone facing physical problems who has a learning difficulty and someone
who struggles mentally for example reading, studying, etc has a learning
disability? A learning disability
may cause them to be slow to think, answer questions, etc longer than others if
not most walks of life but all.
However,’ it has
been known people see dyslexia as people not able to read, write and spell
at all which is not the case but certain words, etc they may have difficulty
reading, writing, etc, which can vary from person to person and also there are
so many letters, words, numbers, etc. Where someone, for example, may have seen a
word loads of times but still can’t read but oddly able to spell it or and even
the other way round. It sounds crazy to a lot of people I guess and I
understand why but believe it or not it sounds impossible but is possible.
The difference between Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia.
Dyscalculia
is problems with numbers and Dysgraphia are problems with writing. Similar to
Dyslexia but the difference is Dyslexia is really problems with words and letters,
but Dyscalculia is problems as I said with numbers. This can link up to Asperges
Syndrome a type of Autism and Dyspraxia. Like Dyslexia, Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty in the sense that a
person could take a long time to work a sum out for example. Dysgraphia is not
that the person can’t write but the writing may not look untidy across the page
without the paper being lined and margin by the side and maybe the person’s writing
is untidy. Dysgraphia is linked to Dyspraxia because the person may struggle to
hold the pen or pencil without pressing into the paper, which may see on the
back of the page they may have written on, which pen, or pencil gripper not only
prevent that but if they do a lot of writing, for example, their wrists may start
to ache after certain of time and break even very short ones may help. These
days it may be worth trying to encourage children, young people, and even older people, in fact, to type more than write on a computer for those who wish to or and can.
Most education disabilities
and difficulties need learning tools easy to read and understand much as
possible which help these people to achieve sooner with the tool or should say
aids, than they would or would without them. Even those of who face the
problems understand that there are tools and aids that are pricey even if don’t
understand how much. How much they cost depends on how many problems a person
has, even most people themselves understand they not going to get tools and or aids
for every one problem they face and even if they do, it won’t be an easy one.
For example, large print, colored writing, pens, pencils, high light pens
print, certain size paper, IT, internet, pictures, etc. All these things may
vary to what the person is doing. In fact, there not be as much involved in
some things compared to others. However,’ with the cost of living crisis these
days, even with the smallest amount of support can be a huge cost but I guess it
can vary to what is involved.https://welfareweekly.com/2022/07/25/the-additional-costs-of-being-disabled-in-the-uk/?fbclid=IwAR3aDM6lZI-lkB2aGzNCNWIlAZ8LN6cLXkc3QFyYQJq2ijCwDRIvcrtkKC4
