Nice
One of the things I love about my job is that I get to talk to customers who are also real people (and we have some really great customers). A message I got today left me with a nice feeling about the world. I will just share the last response:
“Thanks for your comment. There is so much criticism of public services and the NHS these days that unless you are directly involved, Jo Public does not see half the good things that go on around us.
I don’t want to bore you, but few people know that disabled people these days no longer have to be dictated to by Social Services, but can demand that the funding is released by the local authority and paid directly to the disabled person / family to enable them to make their own care arrangements - subject of course to safeguards.
We have taken advantage of these new Direct Payments (as they are called) which means that we hold the purse strings, and as a result the care organisation we use (SeeAbility) is so much more responsive; it’s brilliant. So much has changed in Alexandra’s life in the last 12 months.
She is now in her own sheltered flat, with her own little garden. She receives one-to-one care for 15 hours per day from a basic team of three dedicated carers working only with her in three shifts, and overnight there is a central member of staff (awake) monitoring all the 8 residents in the complex (with one sleeping-in to be called on in case of emergencies).
She even now has her own car, driven by her carers - a brand, spanking new Peugeot 308 which has already done 5,500 miles since March ! This is provided under the Motability scheme and is funded entirely out of her mobility allowance, and it has given her so much more independence - gone are the days of disabled mini-buses and outings only on a group basis.
So putting all that into perspective, the need for a communication scheme perhaps becomes more understandable, because we can interact with the carers. Alexandra is already showing strong signs of development and is at last, at the age of 34, showing a desire to sign with her hands (hands-on-hands like Helen Keller) more than she used to do; it is still at a primitive level, but there is no doubt that the new stimulation from “supported living” instead of residential accommodation has brought this about - and the overall annual cost is actually slightly cheaper, believe it or not.
Sorry, all that is off subject but I hoped it might be of interest. Britain is still a pretty good place to live and despite what you hear in the media, we probably look after disabled people better than anywhere else in the World.
Certainly it helped put things into perspective for me, and someone taking the time to write that to a random employee at an ISP is wonderful. Oh, and the sun is shining too. How good is that for a Thursday?
