Why are people with disabilities being ignored?

There are a wide range of disabilities in society. These range from the physical and very obvious, to those that are not physical and certainly not so obvious. Apparently, such disabilities are not obvious even to the so-called professionals that are hired especially to engage and help such people into employment.

My sister has autism. She got diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum when she was about 12 years old but long before that it was known she had special needs. She was given a statement saying that she was a child with special needs when she was in primary school and the diagnosis of autism was a much later diagnosis. All through primary school she was not given the support she was entitled to.

She was meant to be provided with a classroom support assistant throughout school; this person was meant to help her through her work as my sister has always been slower than others in her classwork. This assistant was meant to be there on a daily basis but in both primary and secondary school she was rarely provided with the necessary support.

In primary school, there was support. The problem was that the support was never in. It took the school long enough to find someone to support my sister, then that person was always ‘ill’. This woman was getting paid to help my sister and in the end, the only support she received consistently was off another classmate. He helped her because the seating plan just happened to put that kind soul next to her. Otherwise, I dread to think how far behind her classmates she would have become. The point is it should never have come to the point where it was down to another child to provide the help my sister needed. If the woman being paid to help my sister and was consistently off sick, common sense should say that someone else should be put in that job. The person that was being paid to do the job was off for weeks at a time, surely this should have meant someone else should have been able to help my sister.

In secondary school, there was support. It was limited. My sister was told that students in wheelchairs took precedence over her needs. My sister needed constant support in the classroom. She was mocked and teased and lost concentration without having a classroom assistant present. Isn’t it disgusting how the department in my school dedicated to special needs told my sister that her needs were not as important as that of others? I agree that people in wheelchairs needed help getting around but my sister actually needed help in the classroom. My sister was also given a laptop to use by the school. At least, for a while she was allowed the use of a laptop. This was for the purpose of work. My sister’s handwriting has never been particularly great, and the premise was that she should have the laptop to be able to type quickly and hopefully keep up with the class. Eventually, the staff within the department decided that a child with a more obvious (a physical disability) needed it more.

The message the Special Education Needs (SEN) department, always sent was that if it wasn’t physical it was not important. The classroom assistants were always being switched over- that was on the days she actually had an assistant. My family have kept records on how many times a week she had an assistant and it was very rare if she had help on a daily basis. I should also describe another instance when my sister thought she wanted to be a beautician.

My sister was going through a phase where she wanted to be a beautician. We suspect it had something to do with another girl in her class who wanted to be a hairdresser but that is not the point. My sister told the school about this desire to work in the beauty industry and they seemed to want to support her. They even told her of courses that were available and that one was in Catford. They told her a start date and time but there was something slightly off about it all. So my Dad phoned the place where she was meant to be attending. They had never heard of my sister. She had no place there and her hopes were dashed.

That was just another thing in a long line of disgraces. There is very little help available for people who have disabilities. There is even less help available for those who have a disability that isn’t immediately obvious. My sister can walk and talk but if you spend a little longer with her you will realise that she is affected on a daily basis by her disability. The lack of help available during school was just the start of a long battle. To get anything for my sister we have always had to fight.

We should not have to fight so hard to get the necessary support. It should be readily available. The reality is very different. No government in recent years has done anything that has had any impact on improving the position of my sister. In fact, with the cut backs things have only been made worse for people with disabilities. With funding cuts, various agencies that have been created and funded by government are now running on a skeleton of staff. Many of these agencies also have to find private support funds because government is not helping.

 The staff working for these agencies are not fully trained in the nuances and needs of those with autism. Many are just young people who work with people with disabilities to get that ‘I’ve done work with the some of the most vulnerable people in the community’ tick on their CV. It is work they deign to take on but not many actually want to do. For many it is a stepping stone to further employment. Truth be told, I can’t blame these people who do this type of work for those reasons. It can be hard to be around people with autism but more training and understanding is needed. Sometimes the simple ability to listen is needed.

My sister is now looking for work. She has done various BTECs and other courses to make her more employable. She is getting help from some of the few agencies that exist to help people with disabilities but even though these agencies have been set up to help people with disabilities, they seem to not hear the needs of those they are working for.

There are two recent examples where they have sent my sister for job interviews at the wrong time. I will not name the organisation in question at this present time. I am hoping my family will file a formal complaint against them soon. To send someone to an interview at the wrong time makes that person look foolish. The same organisation has also applied for jobs on my sister’s behalf. This means they have not asked her permission. This alone infuriates me. To not ask my sister’s permission is to deny her a very simple right- the right to choose. They have been applying for jobs that are inappropriate. Equality is not applying for a job for a disabled person on the basis that an able person could do it. My sister has her limitations. Shift work that starts at 6 in the morning is one of them. My sister is scared of the dark. The time she would have to leave the house would mean she is always travelling in the dark. She also has difficulty in travelling. She would have to remember the names of the stops and be awake enough to hear them as that is her only chance of getting off the bus at the right stop.

I understand that many people do early morning shift work. I do understand that. However, not everyone is suited to those types of jobs. Some people are better suited to working day time hours. That decision was taken from my sister when a junior office member applied for this job, obviously without reading what the job entailed and my sister’s file.

It would appear that the people who are employed to work with those with disabilities are not as conscientious as we would like. There are some who know their jobs inside out. There are many that do not know what they are doing in the workplace. They do not have the necessary understanding of the people they are meant to be working for. This disgusting trend needs to stop. Listening to the needs of people with disabilities would be a great start.

Beggars CAN be choosers

Many people (myself included), have thrown around the old saying ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’. What people don’t seem to realise is that they do have a choice. It is not a matter of choosing to not be homeless, but of other decisions and choices that can either help or hinder the situation. My last post was in relation to volunteering at a night shelter. It is from that experience that I write this post.

Firstly, I will say that one month volunteering with the night shelter does not make me an expert on the condition of the homeless; but it does give me an insight into the world of the homeless that not all of us have seen before.

The night shelter I have been volunteering with has been filled with people who are mostly from Eastern Europe. These are not people who should simply be ‘sent home’. The people there have worked hard, they have not been a burden to the benefit system and many do not realise what benefits they are actually entitled to. Also, many of the people in the night shelter have come to Britain in order to make money and to go back to their native country without even enough money to rent a home is humiliating. It is humiliating to those who have to rely on relatives who do not have much (or may have plenty, either way it is degrading to that individual). That is one choice that the homeless I have met have.

Another choice regarding those who are not from Britain is to go back to their native land without any contact with their relatives there. Through whatever reason, it can be easy to lose contact with relatives. The distance alone can make that a reality; family problems may have been what have driven them to a foreign land. Without contact with relatives ‘just sending ‘em home’ is not a solution. It means those people have a very limited support network. There are some international bodies that can help the homeless who are moving back to their place of origin. I refuse to say ‘home’ on account that many have made Britain their home and to say their birthplace is their home is not right to me.  To send them to the country where they have a passport can mean they are still homeless when they get there. ‘They’re not my problem’. So just because they have come from another country means you have no responsibility towards them? How about helping a homeless person simply because they are your fellow man? Should it matter what country the individual was born in when they are in obvious need of help? I think not. The people are not another species; they are human beings just like you and me. The person can go back to their place of birth but it can at times just shift the problem of homelessness elsewhere and sometimes put the person on the streets of a country that is simply too cold to be sleeping rough.

This brings me onto the issue of the health of the homeless. Some have become homeless because they have become ill. Would you want to be homeless and ill? I know I wouldn’t. There is an injustice in becoming homeless through illness but that is not the point of this post. Many have health problems that caused their homelessness or have been caused by their homelessness. We can only do so much for each person with regards to their health. We can put them in touch with doctors or ask if they want to go into hospital. If they do not want medical attention, we cannot force autonomous adults to see a doctor unless they have lost consciousness and in that case I call for an ambulance. As a volunteer, I am not a parent. I cannot hold the hand of the individual and force them to go where they do not want to. My job as a volunteer is to serve food, clean plates, ask if they want a shower, and talk to the guests. I can advise them on what would be the best course of action but I cannot force them to get medical attention. Is it frustrating when a person will not receive the medical care they need? Of course it is but if I can’t force an adult to see a doctor under normal circumstances then what right do I have to do the same to these people just because they are homeless? Some people do not wish to be helped beyond the basics that are on offer- food, drink, a warm place to sleep for the month.

Some are also making bad choices with regards to their diet. We have had to install a policy with regards to butter. One of our homeless is overweight and rather unhealthy. We have to butter the bread ourselves now, not because we are trying to save his health but we need to have some butter left for the other residents. We cannot give to one person and not to others. We have to deny that one person a layer of butter as thick as the bread because we have other mouths to feed. It is his choice if he wants to keep eating until he has a heart attack so long as we have enough food for the other people. This is just one example of bad eating but there are many more I could but won’t give.

With some it is bad luck that has made them homeless, for others it is bad choices. Some have become homeless through alcoholism, drug addiction or gambling addiction. Addiction is a disease that can affect many and the tragic results are can be death or homelessness in the most extreme cases. At the shelter we can get people in contact with the help they need but it is up to them if they take it. The initial choice to drink, take drugs or gamble was theirs too; once the addiction has taken over they can’t simply stop but in my opinion they have to take certain amount of ownership of how the addiction started. Circumstances can lead to drinking or addiction in general and I can sympathise but I sometimes find it hard to believe how easy one or two wrong choices can lead to being without a home.

At the end of this month we hope that some people will have made some decisions based on the (hopefully) good advice given at the shelter. We can only tell people what type of help they can receive. Whether they take it is not my problem. As much as I would like to see all the residents in permanent, secure housing it probably won’t happen for some. For some life will continue to be cruel to them.

There are those that have done some stupid things and made some very wrong choices. One person was thrown out of the night shelter for racist, abusive and aggressive behaviour. This was a choice and the person in question had to be removed by the police. That is one person who made a bad situation even worse through making some foolish choices. The help we could have provided that person with is now no longer on offer because we can’t have ourselves or other people in the shelter in danger. It was a choice that person made and it was a wrong one. The only real power we have over these people is giving them the choice between following the rules we set out or them leaving to be back out on the streets. Thankfully, the majority choose to play by the rules.

At the end of the day there are choices. I just really hope that these people make the right ones- even though some choices are simply about choosing the lesser of two evils. They all deserve something better than roaming the streets and sleeping rough. I do sincerely hope they make the correct choices with regards to their health, their homes and addictions. I hope that I won’t be serving these same people food again next year. I would really like there to be a year where no night shelters are needed but that is not a life I think I will see. There will always be someone who needs the help that is on offer but these people need to accept it and make hard decisions.

Helping at a Night Shelter

I volunteered with a night shelter last night. I expected to feel some fundamental growth in myself as a person on that first night of volunteering. I expected to see people that it would be easy to feel sorry for but I did not. 

These people were homeless but they were still people. They were really quite ordinary. They were quite clean and well kept. Some even had work but could not afford to rent a place to live. It would have been easier had we had a bunch of screaming drunks walk through the doorway. It would be easy to place the blame on the individual then. These people were not drunk. They were not feeling sorry for themselves either. They were simply unlucky and uncared for in a time where most people are struggling.

Their story was one of the times. They fit the modern nightmare of not having enough to live on and so have nowhere to live. Others were people who came to this country with the idea of finding their fortune and found poverty instead. 

All the residents of last night’s shelter were older than myself but reduced to having a group of people serve them food and make conversation with them when ordinarily I would have passed them by. It is only in the setting of being a volunteer I would have bothered to talk to a bunch of strangers. 

There is more than one interesting thing in that last paragraph. I live in one of the loneliest cities and would do nothing to stop someone else feeling lonely. I would never strike up a conversation with a stranger. I wouldn’t make eye contact with a stranger unless I could help it. I can also say that I would not speak to someone who is homeless unless it was under such conditions. 

Homeless people have a position of disgust. We are taught by society to ignore a growing problem on our streets. It is a problem that could so easily affect any one of us at any time. It is easy to fall into the trap of having no money for rent. It is easy to have no money for food or clothes and have no place to shower. We are taught by a very rich few that homelessness does not really matter or we have our conscience eased by buying a sandwich that gives money to a charity that helps the homeless. Those few pence do help but our impact could be so much more. We could all do more.

This isn’t a post to tell you to do more. It is saying that we could. Truth be told I will go back to my fairly cosy existence and not think of those people too much once the night shelter has ended. That is the nature of the world we live in. I would like to change it but I know I will lose momentum for it. My generation is one that moves from one big issue to another. They are loyal to an issue as long as it is trending on Twitter. We all claim to care about the social issues whilst sipping on our skinny lattes and playing with our phones but whilst we say we care we do nothing to really change society. 

This is just a post to air some ideas that have given me some confusion. Now I must go drink some Earl Grey tea.