Who lives in a care home like this?

I've been spending some time wondering why I haven't written very much on the disability rights front and more importantly about the Government's proposed changes and cuts to disability benefits. To be honest I think it's because I've felt utterly devastated by the proposals. But maybe that is what some in the government want, and many of their policies seem to be framed in a way which endorses the view of disabled people as passive recipients of care, benefits and help from the "Big Society." I don't want to fall into that trap. It's not quite that simple; that isn't the full picture because some in the Government are keen on personalisation and disabled people being at the centre of decision making - how can they support both things?

I'm not an expert on social care policy and I'm not much of a campaigner either. There are so many others who do this kind of thing better than me. If you are interested in finding out more about social care policy, disability and politics then I recommend reading Rich Watts insightful, erudite and entertaining blog Arbitrary Constant

If you are interested in campaigning, disability and politics then you can't go wrong by checking out the Broken of Britain blog

But after delivering 2 days of training on personalisation in Essex I feel moved to write about just one aspect of the cuts and changes to disability benefits.

Removing the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance from those who are in residential care.

Well you can see how this idea came about can't you. Some bright spark said "So if someone's in a care home they aren't going to be travelling about much are they? They probably don't event know what day of the week it is poor things. It's a waste of money to pay for "mobility" if everything is brought to them in the care home."

It's the kind of "thought" anyone might have if they:

A, don't think about it for very long - and hey who wants to think about old and disabled people living in care homes that smell of pee and boiled cabbage

B, haven't ever had to live, work or spend any time in a residential care home

C, have a very narrow view of who lives in a care home

D, has no concept of human rights (see A and the not wanting to think about unpleasant things)

So if you want to be narrow minded, bigoted and only interested in making a quick buck then yes stopping the mobility component for disabled people in residential care might make some kind of sense.

Who lives in a home like this?

So who lives in residential care homes? Here is a sample of some of the kind of people who live in residential care:

• Armed forces personnel injured in Afganistan and Iraq - they live there whilst being rehabilitated but also because they can't find suitable accessible accommodation to move into or it takes 18 months to 2 years to sort out the funding and work to make their existing homes accessible
• Someone who has a spinal injury or brain injury from any kind of accident they may be in residential care for all the reasons given above
• People with complex impairments and health conditions such as MS, motor neuron disease - they may be living in residential care for the reasons above and because they need specialist medical services which aren't delivered in the community
• People with learning disabilities who may want to live independently but the support package needed to enable this is seen as "too difficult"
• Older people with complex impairments and conditions like Altzeimers

What is the mobility component of DLA used for?

On the training course I was just delivering, some real examples of how the mobility component of DLA is used by disabled people living in residential care were given. For example it pays for a taxi to take someone with their support worker to the shops, or to the cinema, or theatre, or to visit family rather than them always having to come to the care home.

So you ask why isn't the care home or social services providing this kind of service? It's just not the best way for social services or the residential homes to use their resources. They may employ a driver to organise trips away but they have to involve more than one person to make them efficient. So its expensive and it doesn't provide choice or control for the disabled person.

Having the mobility component of DLA allows the disabled person to have control over where they go, when and how.

If you were a young soldier back from Iraq with a spinal injury are you going to want to wait for the social services mini bus to take you to the pub once a week or would you rather go to the pub with your mates when they go?

What message does this send out?

What worries me most is that just the proposal to cut mobility allowance from disabled people in residential care sets a frightening example. It sends out a message that disabled people in residential homes are not part of the community like you or I. They are essentially defined by the home they are trapped in. They don't need to be part of the community, they are shut away and forgotten. They don't have the right to be mobile.

If you are able to I ask you to please use the tools on the Broken of Britain blog to contact your MP and respond to the consultation which closes on 14th February. It's not too late.

I chose the photo below which I took from my study window just before I started writing this, because I think it's both bleak and hopeful.

Guitars and stargazing

Yesterday I bought myself a guitar. It's about 10 years since I have properly played a guitar, but I have been wanting to take it up again for some time now. I was delivering training in Croydon yesterday for Action for Children volunteers. On my way to the training venue I passed by a large music shop with a huge selection of guitars. I popped in just to see if there was anything I liked. The shop assistant (who had hair down to his waist, though I suspect it was permed, the spiral curls were just too perfect!) was very helpful showing me lots of different guitars. The one above which I bought seemed the easiest to play, the right size for me and had the best sound. The guitar is an electro acoustic Tanglewood, rosewood reserve. Its quieter than my previous guitar but a bit livelier I think. I've just got to go through the first few weeks of pain while I build up calluses on my finger tips and strength in my fingers.

As well as taking up guitar again I have been doing a bit of star gazing thanks to Jason buying some really cool binoculars which came with a smaller free pair so we have a pair each. We've had a couple of clear nights recently and I've been able to find stars I've not been able to see for years. Orion of course is incredibly bright at this time of year but with the binoculars I could see one of the nebula within the constellation of Orion.

A couple of weeks ago there was a partial eclipse at dawn which I was able to see. The photo before is of the sky just before the eclipsed sun rose. It was really quite beautiful.

Rookie

I am dedicating the first post of 2011 to my very old but very happy cat, Rookie.

The picture above is of her in her younger days though when I got Rookie from the Cats' Protection League in 2004 she was described as an old cat because she was 11. The woman from the Cats' Protection League said that not many people want to take on older cats, but it didn't bother me. Rookie needed a home because her owners were moving into rented accommodation and couldn't keep a cat on any more. Her original owners called her Tootsie but I just couldn't bring myself to call her that! I just kept thinking of Dustin Hoffman in drag. so I had to think up a name that sounded like Tootsie but meant something to me. In the end I chose Rookie because it was the name of a bar/coffee shop in Amsterdam that I liked!

Rookie is a very demonstrative, vocal and quite emotional cat. She's part Siamese like the cat I had previously Mr Shoo. (The tale of Mr Shoo is a sad one so I'll save that for another day, but no finer cat than Mr Shoo ever lived and he came to a very tragic end.) Rookie likes to talk and tell you what is on her mind, she has a rather hoarse guttural miaow which means feed me, a sharper miaow that means I'm here, a pitiful miaow or wale which means make a fuss of me, and even a delicate mew which means thank you for giving me a catnip toy. Rookie also has a host of little grumbling and murmuring noises which mean all sorts of strange and unfathomable feline things.

Rookie likes being made a fuss of, tuna, cat nip, the sun, sleep, Whiskers supermeat, climbing in boxes and staring through windows. Rookie hates birds, dogs and other cats, with the exception of Oliver the cat below who she shared a house with for 3 years when she lived at my parents place. She didn't like Oliver at first but after she had bullied him into submission she tolerated him just fine. Now that Rookie has left to live with me again, Oliver is delighted. In the picture below he is doing a fine impression of hypno toad.
Rookie is quite old now at 17 and she has got very skinny, but if anything she has got more characterful as she has aged. She still treats the world with disdain, generally looking appalled by everything from the state of her food, to the weather outside. She is getting a bit senile I think and occasionally adds to her state of disgruntledness a measure of bewilderment. But every night with out fail she clambers up on to the settee to curl up between me and Jason to purr and snore. She's a very content cat who gets a lot of fuss and attention to a level that my Mum thinks is excessive but I do come from a family where my Great Aunt had individual hot water bottles for her cats. (And she lives in Australia!)

Farewell 2010

I know that I have written before that I'm not a great fan of New Year's Eve. I think its the arbitrary nature of it. Every and any day could be New Year's Eve surely? Although it was the Roman's who started celebrating 1st Jan (or near equivalent some days after the winter solstice basically) as New Year in the British Isles, so it goes back a fair few years.

I'm not against New Year's celebrations though; I've had some lovely New Years', some raucous (I'm thinking of the 2 I spent in Weston Super Mare!), some boozy and cosy spent in Doncaster usually with my friend Lorraine watching music videos after the pub. I've had a couple of lost New Year's Eves in Nottingham one involving being dressed as a goth (although I really resembled a French mine artist) and the other a rolling stones tribute band called the Rolling Clones. I've also been lucky enough to have spent some beautiful New Year's Eve's with Jase last year at Hampton Court and the year before that in central London but away from the crowds. (our first 2 new years were spent at home watching fire works over the roofs.)

This year will be like the latter, we will be seeing 2011 in from our new home. So that will be very special and quiet although I do want to try a Drambuie and champagne cocktail, so maybe not that quiet!

The seemingly never ending onslaught of unpacking, acquiring new pieces of furniture for our new house continues. My office/study is nearly ready. Its so good to have my own space to work in. Ginny Wolf knew how important it was to have your own space, and she was right!

Before Christmas our dining table was delivered and there is a picture of it below.

Here's a picture of it with the runner and place mats which arrived yesterday. The colour scheme in the dining end of our kitchen diner is green and blue - quite a deep sea green and bright blue.

Well it just leaves me to wish everyone who reads my blog a very merry New Year's Eve and may 2011 be peaceful, joyful and bright! Cheers!

Boxing day

My parents visited today - Boxing day, and we went for a lovely walk in the snow with Millie the chocolate Labrador. Above is a photo of my Dad and Millie. Below is a picture of my Mum an me before I took a tumble on the ice.
Whilst on the walk I took a picture of our house and our neighbours from across the first field.

We had a lovely Christmas day yesterday, with a lovely dinner, very quiet and peaceful. It's so nice to be settled in to our new house for Christmas. Most of my office furniture arrived on Christmas Eve and we, well I mean Jase built it for me so I spent a little bit of time unpacking stationery yesterday. We still have quite a lot more to do but we're getting there.

Cold December

The cold weather has continued - we were so lucky that the weekend we moved happened to be in a hiatus to the weather. This weekend we had snow as I mentioned in the entry below. In the end we had about half a foot of snow which now has compacted somewhat and is about 4 or 5 inches deep. There are much deeper drifts of course. Today we went for a walk into Biggleswade across the fields in the snow. Although I was wearing wellies I found it really hard going. My back was killing me. In town I bought a pair of German snow boots, fleece lined and waterproof. They are the most snuggly, comfy boots ever. I totally love them!

In town we had a nice meal at the Maltings in Biggleswade which is really cosy and the food and wine were lovely and as a converted brewery malting house it is rather historic inside.

Below is a picture of Rookie contemplating the snow.
We also went back to our rented house today, the one which had all the spiders in the garden. We found these on the back gate. Very beautiful webs I just wonder how the spiders are faring.

You can find some more pictures here on my flickr page

House move and Christmas preparations

Above is a picture of my cat Rookie who has come back to live with me now that we've moved in to our new home. Rookie is an elderly cat approaching her 18th year. Apart from from being very thin and a bit arthritic she is well and very happy to be living with us again. When I moved in with Jase 3 years ago she went to live with my Mum and Dad in Yorkshire because Jase's flat didn't have a garden. Anyway she seems very happy to be back and seems to like our back garden. Rookie is a talkative cat being part Siamese, she likes to miaow at every opportunity. For example like many cats she miaows when she wants food but she always says thank you after her food as well!

So the house below isn't our new home ;-) its actually for sale in our local bakers for £20 if I'd had means to get it home I would have bought it! A real gingerbread house is something I've always wanted! it was very Christmassy in town today, there were carol singers in the market dressed in Biblical fancy dress, there seemed to be more than 3 wise men but the more the merrier I suppose. I got a cup of free mulled wine when I bought a freshly made pancake. Even outside ASDA the Lions club had their Santa's sleigh parked and blasting out Christmas hits. As it started to snow I felt very festive even though it was absolutely freezing.
We moved into our new house last weekend - in the hiatus between snow and ice so we were very lucky. The move went really smoothly everything done in one day. Of course it was stressful and it felt like the packing and the boxes would never end. Now it feels like we've lived here forever. We still have a lot of unpacking to do but there's no rush. Below is a photo of our front door with trees I've bought and the light and number Jase fitted today before the snow came.
As below shows we have had snow here in Bedfordshire, after largely missing it last time its quite a novelty to have snow. It's still falling and we have about 2 inches which has fallen in about 2 hours.

Biggleswade Christmas Lights

Last night was the annual Christmas lights switch on in Biggleswade town centre. The Mayor said that this was a spectacle which has been celebrated since 1962. It appears that the lights themselves date back to that first "switch on" as well. You can see some grainy pictures I took of the lights and towns folk last night.

As with the summer carnival, a fayer was present in the market square, and the Sea Cadets and choral society treated us to carols and Christmas tunes. I particularly enjoyed singing O Come All Ye Faithful and O Little Town of Bethlehem. The Sea Cadets rendition of Frosty the Snow Man was also a treat.
Staunch atheist Jason, didn't really enjoy one of the local vicars, Pastor Trevor, asking everyone to pray for the lights and Christmas in general. But the Mayor soon brought the focus back to consumerism by asking everyone to contribute towards the Chamber of Commerce's Christmas Lights fund! Everyone was then encouraged to stuff their faces with candy floss, hot dogs, chips and to scream if they wanted to go faster on the waltzers.

Jase and I beat a hasty retreat to the Stratton House Hotel to have a quick dinner. When we arrived everything was set out for Christmas dinner! I was ecstatic! There is a picture below of the Stratton's Christmased up restaurant and me looking ecstatic (and like a plump farmers wife, I think.) We got the only spare table, as the rest of the restaurant was given over to a 70th birthday party. I'd had my turkey dinner and Jase his steak before the 70th birthday got going though so we didn't witness the fun!

Today I've been mainly packing ready for our move. This time next week we should be - fingers crossed - safely moved into our new house. Today I packed books and ornaments. I'm glad I've bought so much wool lately as it has been invaluable for padding out boxes!

Met Police Disability Independent Advisory Group

One of the projects I have been working on for the last few months has been with the Metropolitan Police. So I am very pleased to announce that today the Met have launched their recruitment drive for their Disability Independent Advisory Group. More information and how to apply are below. Good luck!

Advert for DIAG

Metropolitan Police Service, Disability Independent Advice Group:

Members

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) are recruiting a new Disability Independent Advisory Group (DIAG) and are seeking around 12 members.

The DIAG’s role will be to provide independent, strategic and specialist advice to the MPS on how disabled people of all ages and backgrounds are affected by the policing of London. We are looking for committed, enthusiastic people who can work well as part of a group but who can also express their views, specialist knowledge and experience as an individual at a high level within a complex organisation.

Your views and advice will support the MPS in making London safe.

The MPS will seek advice from the group through two methods: on line or through pre arranged meetings.

This is a voluntary role without payment. However, reasonable expenses will be paid and reasonable adjustments will be accommodated.

To request an application pack, please contact us:

Email : disability@met.police.uk

Tel no: 0207 161 2719 also for further information

Deaf and deafened people using a Textphone (minicom) should use the 18001 Text Relay prefix and dial 18001 0207 161 2719 or

SMS text: 07920768425

Closing date: 24th December 2010

All applicants will be contacted early in the New Year

Quick snow update

After buying the pair of wellies above, for walking in the snow, the snow melted! Saying that it hasn't all gone and the temperature has plummeted again as soon as the sun went down. It's -1 at the moment.

Below is a photo of some holly I took looking very festive :-)