Dogs for the Disabled Ireland

On January 30th, I got into a conversation thread on Facebook with some of the guys on the Irish Dogs for the Disabled. The upshot of which is, I have permission to start blogging about my experiences with them so far and going forwards.

So who are Irish Dogs for the Disabled? - and how on Earth can you tell if a dog's Irish? Tee hee!

No, Irish Dogs for the Disabled are an Irish Charity who provide assistance dogs for disabled people.

Based in County Cork, the charity is three years old and already changing lives.

At: http://www.dogsfordisabled.ie/

you can learn all about Irish Dogs for the Disabled, the work they do, see cute pictures of the dogs and pups and support by making a donation if you wish or by buying calendars etc.

So what makes someone like me want to apply for an assistant dog?

Well, for one thing, I am generally an advocate for assistant animals generally. I have experience from my family of the RNIB's puppy socialising programme in the UK and I know many people who work with assistant animals, ranging from hearing and seeing-eye dogs, to a cat who's trained to warn my friend when she's about to have an epileptic fit and needs her medicine. So I have seen at first hand just how much difference these companions can make for their partners.

In my case, I have applied to be partnered with a dog, as I believe a partnership will give me three things that are vital to a decent quality of life.

These are:

* Confidence

* Independence

* Dignity

Currently I walk with a stick. Don't worry, that's not a sympathy plea, it's just what the situation is and in all honestly, I'm at peace with that to a certain extent (particularly since I was told that by Christmas of 2006 I would be in a wheelchair permanently).

If I'm at home or indoors in places I know, I don't like to use my stick. It's something I've discussed with my OT and Public Health nurse and they support me in this. - For me, it allows me to have both some time working on my strength and balance every day (which is an essential thing if I want to maintain my mobility as good as it is now) and it allows me some "normal" time.

Up until the last year, I used to manage my mobility between "one stick days" and "two stick days" depending on how bad my mobility was.

However, last year I started having sensation and power issues in my left arm.

From working with my then counsellor, I learnt that it is not uncommon after traumatic periods, for the body to go into a form of "survival mode" where the body sort of ignores or switches off to an injury in the short to medium term to enable us to deal with the business of surviving, so even though it was 2007 when I was hurt, the true extent of the damage didn't show until the spring of last year when I'd got through my counselling and my body was relaxing out of that survival mode.

The problem with my arm, means that I can no longer necessarily rely on two sticks on really bad days. So the choices were, sacrifice mobility altogether on those days (never a good idea - you end up playing catch-up with yourself forever!) or find another solution.

So, if I successfully get matched with an assistant dog, I will be able to turn one stick days into 'walking with dog' days because the dog will be able to provide me with a stable base of steady forward motion that I can use to keep myself balanced and mobile and two stick days, which are currently no mobility days, would become dog and stick days, which means that I will be more able to get around independently EVERY DAY no matter how good or bad it is legs-wise.

Having a doggy companion will also allow me to ride public transport when I need to without having to try to find someone to accompany me. - Another lease on independence.

So that's the chief way that being paired with an assistant dog would change things for me, but there are other benefits too.

The biggest single benefit, from my perspective, is the element of boosted confidence.

Sad to say, no matter how good people are about disability (and I'm thinking of all people here from Jo Public all the way through to medics and everywhere in between) the reality often is that if you happen to be both young (say under 30) and disabled, the greater amount of the time you're going to hit one of two negative attitudes - either that soft, head on one side gesture with masses of sympathy for "you poor dear" which is sweetly meant, but actually can really undermine and undervalue you and make you feel like you're of no worth at all, or, on the other end of the spectrum, you get the attitude (ridiculously enough often from fitness professionals and physios etc) that if you happen to be young and disabled, then somehow you're just not trying hard enough.

Now call me paranoid if you want to, but I reckon a whole heap of that's tied up in the stick - and a lot of other stick users agree. Especially when you're young, it's incongruous - it doesn't fit with people's expectation and I think when people are wrong footed, that's when a lot of the accidental ignorance situations happen - just mainly because people are uncomfortable.

So believe me, if I'm successfully paired with an assistant dog, one of the things that I'm going to revel in is being able to go out alone with him/her WITHOUT THE STICK and enjoy being able to engage in a world where the snap judgements made about me are less likely to be that I'm incapable, or weak, or just too odd to comprehend.

That, I'm aware is going to seem an odd thing to say for anyone reading this who's an able-bod, but if you think about it, it's not so unusual. - One of the beatiful, complicated parts of the human animal is that we make value judgements, all of us, it's natural and all of us want to present to the world our 'Best Face' and it damages our mental health when we can't do that.

So CONFIDENCE is something that I believe working alongside an assistance dog will bring as well as the DIGNITY of having a better stab at being accepted and identified by my personality rather than my disability first.

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The application process so far has been fairly easy.

A simple, downloaded form from their website in easy language, asking direct questions about our family and support network, our ability to keep up with the application process and to attend for training, and most importantly, our ability to care and provide for the animal we hope will be put into our care.

We went down to Cork last summer to meet with Jenny who's in charge of training the dogs and to go through the application and just talk about the benefits of a partnership, as well as making sure we all know about the downsides too and can cope with them. (Fortunately I'm well used to clearing up fecal mess from a variety of babies, people, cats, dogs, etc.)

Now, it's a waiting game.

Pups live their first year with "socialisers" who are volunteers who, as well as taking care of the puppy's needs, introduce the basic good manners s/he will need later on and expose the puppy to life in all its glorious facets so that the puppy gets used to a broad range of sights, sounds, and smells, ready for when they go out into the world.

After about a year, pups enter their training. One of the cleverest things about the assistance dogs scheme, I think, is that the skills that pups learn - and therefore the partnerships they're placed in, is dictated by the individual hound's personality and aptitudes.

Our hope is that maybe one of the current or next batch of dogs after this one might be a match for me.

Meanwhile, we're doing what we can to support this wonderful charity.

Disability Reforms

So, having read this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348851/I-want-to-work--I-just-need-bit-help-I-independent-One-legged-man-told-disabled-specially-adapted-car.html

I dropped in on www.davidcameron.com

As a still passport holding, if without a vote "UK Citizen", offered him my 9-point ideas for reforming the current disability scheme so that he can pinch them and make them his own. The message is below. I wonder what he'll make of it?

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Dear Mr Prime Minister

Having lived under both the UK's DLA system (UK citizen with passport) and now under the Irish disability scheme, when reading today about Robert Oxley, I was not at all suprised.

I have long since come to the conclusion that both schemes need a bit of tweaking, but that with a bit of inter-governmental support, both systems could come out on top.

The Irish scheme is much easier to live on day-to-day basis as the amount received is enough to live on properly (i.e. at or just above breadline depending on circumstances), but there is little room to allow the candidate to work. (Actually, there is adequate provision, but the accompanying benefits - Household allowance and Rent Allowance, make it impossible to invoke that part of the scheme).

The UK system at least allows a disabled person to work, but the application and appeal system is flawed. - Personally, while on the UK scheme, my experience was that I had to fight for over five years for any DLA at all and when I did finally get a hearing, I was advised by the CAB agent who helped me to finally do the forms in such a way as I was no longer interpreted as "Not disabled enough" (My average mobility is about 2-3 mobile with aids days in a week) told me that I was being disallowed from mobility, even though the chairlady acknowledged I needed it, because it was her personal policy to disallow some portion of every appeal she heard to teach the applicant a lesson for appealing. - Even the attending security guard at the centre agreed that she was "known for that".

I also know of another disturbing case, but that I would like an opportunity to email to you away from the public forum as I do not know if that person would want to be public.

How I suggest that a reformed DLA system should be:

* Disability benefit to be ONE benefit, not care and mobility portions as now (more on this later)
* One form, possibly based on the current Irish application for the applicant and their supporting doctor to fill out. This form should also, as epr the current Irish provision give one box for a doctor to tick for permission for the candidate to do therapeutic/permitted work if the Doctor thinks it would benefit them.
* A sensible rate of payment. By which, I mean, that the new disability payment gives enough to properly live on, so that the applicant doesn't have to go out and claim IS or JSA, Food tokens etc on top (this will also bring down some of the admin costs of these other benefits and could provide some of the funding for this new scheme) I would suggest that for an individual this be around the £100 - £150mark. There should be a monetary figure that may be earned in permitted/theraputic work each week. - I would suggest this figure be around the £100 mark.
* Being on the new disability scheme should automatically qualify the candidate for HB, CTB, Winter Fuel Allowance and Disabled Persons' Tax Credits - there should be no deductions from any related benefit unless the candidate earns more than there weekly allowance for permitted work. Each of these benefits should have an easy form, to get the person's name, address, NINO and DOB and then only require a photocopy of the letter of entitlement to disability to be enclosed with it (Again, less paperwork, less costs, more funding can be diverted into the running of this new scheme)
* Being on the scheme should entitle the individual to x (perhaps) 10 hours a week with a Personal Assistant. They should be able to buy more hours if they need it (This will provide jobs at least 10hrs a week to trained Carers - perhaps disillusioned former NHS staff would be good in one-on-one roles where they can really make a difference on a personal level and money from extra hours would pay a portion of the PAs' wages and could contribute to the running of the new scheme).
* Motability should be available to every person in receipt of the new disability benefit who passes a medical evaluation of their capability.
* VRT and VAT relief/refund should be available for every recipient on their transport and petrol.
* Every candidate should receive a bus and rail pass.
* The current living abroad rules should be slightly altered so that a citizen living in another EU state ought to be allowed to retain their benefit for two years instead of only one. - That way, the UK would no longer be inadvertently preventing its disabled citizens from their right to live in the member state of their choice. (This may seem counter intuitive on the surface if we are to make the financial administration of the new system as efficient as possible, but if you see point '4' below, You will see where it is that I think a portion of the necessary revenue could come.)

If all of that were in place, more of the UK's disabled citizens would be:
1) Living better
2) Able to live securely - under the current system, if you live and are independent to the best of your ability you are likely to be penalised
3) Due to '1' & '2' more able to be productive citizens, generating income for the country (through both working - thereby generating income for the country and paying taxes and leisure/getting out and about etc )
4) Legitimately getting help. - Part of the reason why so many defraud the current system, from what I have seen, is because it's so spread out and fragmented. Bringing the new system in would centralise and clearly delineate rights and responsibilities from grass-roots all the way up to the cabinet and ultimately, to your office Mr Prime Minister. - This point, in and of itself ought to save the country a huge amount in benefits that are currently being paid out to frauds who've diluted the system to a nonsense that is failing the very people who need it most.


I do hope this will be of use to you Mr Prime Minister. I am sure that you will also find that if you were to embark upon a reform of the Disability Benefits System, that many of us regular citizens within the Disabled Community, both at home and abroad, would be only too happy to help at any point in the process.