Why is it, that because Stef's disability is mental rather than physical, she gets so much less help? She can't wipe her own bottom, bath herself, dress herself properly, brush her hair, or clean her teeth properly...why then doesnt she get the same support as a child who isnt physically capable of doing the same tasks.
This week, City of Greater Geelong in their wisdom wouldnt give us a disabled parking permit..Why? Because Stef can walk......but hey, we have to hold her like she is handcuffed to us in a carpark....and as she gets stronger, that gets harder.
What did they send us instead...a carpark permit that gives us double the time...doesnt make sense when the most we ever spend shopping with her is as quick as possible...get in get out before the overwhelmingness that sometimes get her hits.
The same goes for in home respite care...she would get far more if she had even a tiny physical disability than she ever gets now. It just sucks that there is such a division with support available for physical vs mental disabilities. OMG, she is one of the most severely afflicted kids in Geelong and yet we get stuff all! Not even help with a speech device.....grr.....it just gives me the shits! Autism is not sexy....its not like a baby seal...all cute and cuddly. Its a shitty horrible frustrating and debilitating condition and not having a voice must be the most frustrating of all disabilities. I know, I have tried not to speak for a day. I could handle being blind, a few weeks with eyepatches on proved that (acid burns to the eyes in a lab accident), I can handle being deaf, but to not be able to tell people what you want, what you feel, or what you dont want would really suck. To have someone exert their wants or needs on you without being able to express what you want or dont want...how frustrating. Why isnt a voice seen as being important by the stupid people who create this hierachy of disabilities...why do they see that a bung knee or low muscle tone is worse than not having a voice. Who the flick are these people who decide this....Id love to gag them for a day, put them in a strange place with no reading ability and fill em up on water....and just see their frustration when they cant find the toilet. Why isnt having the mind of a two year old in the body of a 12 year old seen as a disability??
If it sounds as if Im pissed off...its because I am. I am so sick of fighting a shitty discriminatory system which does not understand my child's disability. It happens at school, with the council, with respite care services and support services....assholes
Anyways, thats my soap box for the day. trying hard to move on this morning. I have a lot to do, but my mind keeps coming back. I guess I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, do the stuff I have to do and just keep on keeping on.
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