The kind of help that’s the disabled need is family like love social interaction teaching learning and support ( you can call it community, community is what’s very much missing in most of this country right now so everyone could use more family like love and social interaction and support)
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Hey LeilAloha,
I agree wholeheartedly and prior to my last incident that was my job. I was employed as a Living Skills Teacher. Teaching people with a whole range of disabilities independent living skills. How to do what most people take for granted, how to cook, how to clean, how to access services and how to live in the community. Our societies are slowly changing to make things more accessible to everybody. It used to be that people with disabilities were institutionalised and hidden from the broader society. This change is good but it needs to be understood that with governments closing such institutions they need to put services into place to help and assist people to reintegrate back into society. Rather than saying “Ohh ‘John’ can’t do X…” what are the limitations for ‘John’, what measures can be put in place to assist ‘John’ to participate. ‘John’s’ self worth will increase 10 fold if, rather than people doing tasks for him, he is shown how he can do for self. Sure he may need some assistance, he may need specific tools to minimise or overcome an impairment but to simply write off his ability to learn new skills belittles ‘John’ and reinforces the idea that disability means inability.
We worked with people in their own environment, their own homes, to teach them the individual skills they needed. We did not take them to a classroom, where they would then need to transfer those skills to their homes. We taught them ‘one on one’, that is one client, one worker. By doing this we taught them only the skills they needed assistance with and not a whole curriculum, this acknowledged the skills they already possessed and encouraged them to use these skills.
We had ‘functions’ each month. A get-together, either a BBQ or a disco where people could interact with each other on a social basis. We had staff present to deal with/manage any contentious behaviour and give guidance. It was very much a holistic approach to supporting clients.
I must admit our service was very unique both in its approach and the manner in which services were provided and strongly believe that for people who do not fit the mainstream model such services are a must to meet their needs.
Merl
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You are right. We need a commmunity of survivors who support and care for each other. Wait! That’s what this group is, wow! You probably mean live though. Unfortunately, tbiers are rarely in the same community, or easy travelers. That is something that must be initiated in your area.
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