This is the beginning of a national dialogue on physical disability. Launching in September, the dialogue is designed to encourage people with a physical disability to start talking about what it is like to have a physical disability, sharing information about different types of physical disability, some unusual, some quite common, however individuals are all different and have different stories to share.
To start off the dialogue, we want to hear what readers think should be included under the banner physical disability. Should we include disabilities such as respiratory disability, disfigurements, strokes, parkinsons, asthma, and many other disability types that currently are not recognised under the name of physical disability.
So let us hear your thoughts on 'What disabilities does physical disabilty include?'
Till next time, start writing.....
Sue
I suffer with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and [exist] solely dependant on the Disability Support Pension at the partnered rate. During a prolonged exposure to solvents in a workplace I became less able to tolerate chemicals and fragrances. I tried to remain in various workplaces but at an overwhelming cost to my health. I experience severe social exclusion and continue experiencing system abuse from various Australian Government Departments and welfare organisations who ignore their impact on my health. Although I don't appear to be ill from the outside, I find myself befuddled (like being drunk) but I don't drink alcohol or take medications except for paracetamol if needed. I have muscular skeletal problems that requires chiropractic work but symptoms return within hours of sublaxation. My mouth is full of Mercury Amalgam fillings that adversely impact my health and probably contribute to chiropractic issues. More often than not, I experience adverse reactions to medications especially those containing petrochemicals, preservatives and soy. My symptoms can affect multiple organ systems yet most of them don't show in general pathology. At times I have difficulty organising daily activities and projects. I have ideas of how to raise public awareness at local, national and global scales regarding MCS but find my organisational capacity renders those ideas impossible!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this information. PDA has quite a few members with MCS and they also relate similar problems.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Cancer? Is this a physical disabilty?
ReplyDeleteI finally found the blog Sue :-)
ReplyDeleteI always thought of a physical disability as anything that affects you physically. I personally have MCS and it sucks and it can make people pass out and leave them very ill plus it can often go with other conditions such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome that can cause anything from a mild to severe disability. So if cancer is in your leg and cause of the cancer it had to be amputated well thats a given physical disability maybe you get better from the cancer whereever it is and recover and no longer have a physical disability (dont personally have experience with this so just trying to think logically!)
As for me personally I have severe dystonia which has led me to become a wheelchair user ALL the time and it is actually a bit similar to parkinsons only a bit different. I guess a physical disability does not have to impair your legs it could impair your arms or hands its still a physical disability! My geneticist is questioning whether the dystonia can be apart of mitochondrial myopathy a type of muscular dystrophy with over 400 diseases under the one banner. Most of these would be a physical disability i would think and the symptoms are actually quite similar to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Personally i have chronic pain issues and its incredibly disabling in my case anyways. I am on multiple medications and use other strategies and even before becoming a wheelchair user i still had this symptom and relied on a walking stick! But some people with chronic pain less severe can work fine and do all manner of things despite having the chronic pain.
Similarly to the problems of awareness with MCS i would say that there is also this problem with fibromyalgia chronic fatigue syndrome not being recognised by state disability services and therefore not being able to get home assistance or only 2 showers a week. Most people i know with these conditions have them long term if not forever so to call it a medical condition and not a disability is a bit silly. It would have to be individualised for people with these and any other conditions because for some with only fibromyalgia they can funciton without any assistance or aids at all yet for others they become wheelchair users or even bed bound there is a huge scale for these conditions. Similarly for mitochondrial myopathy there is not much awareness of what this condition actually is and its only been recognised that you can have adult onset of this at any age recently so unless the drs are aware of the latest research they really are not up to date at all. Same with dystonia there is a mitochondrial disase foundation but there is nothing for dystonia at all and it is widely diagnosed as is fibro CFS/ME and mito disease, as being psychosomatic, malingering or conversion disorder having personally spent the past 3 years fighting these diagnoses and only recently acquiring a good geneticist who has been able to do her job see past all this and actually oh well there might actually be somethign going on it is nice that this has finally happened.
So i think that all these conditions are probably physical disabilities of one kind or another its just that the severity totally varies from one person to another and i wish the conditions were recognised by places like centrelink and state disability services or the NDIS if it ever happens!!!
Thanks for your Post Erin. Physical Disability is many things to many people, and your comments are correct in that anything that results in a physical difference to your life by way of a mobility disability can be considered a physical disability.
ReplyDeleteWhat about other disabilities though, such as a communication disability, where does that fit in if the criteria we use is physically impacts on life?
I believe if the condition results in a physical way, then it fits into our criteria.
Any comments???
Sue
I think that the general public have no idea what "disability" is!!!!! I was trying to explain to some people I know about the NDIS and what that means for disability services in Australia actually commented on how dystonia could not be a disability and then started telling us how they were applying for total and permanent disability a scheme because they can no longer work. The condition to me sounds fairly disabling!!! it may not be the same as mine and not in as many parts of the body, not even needing a walking frame or wheelchair but its still a "disability" so if people who have conditions like this cant even recognise a disability or know what it is what hope does the government or anyone else!!! it just seems so unreal to me that people dont want to admit that they have a disability like its somehow bad or something everyone percieves disability so differently!!! Also i had the fun (not) task of explaining what the NDIS is because i was trying to support every australia counts by sending 10 people their info about the NDIS to reach 100, 000 supporters and of course the people i was talking to did not understand the word "insrance"
ReplyDeleteI know his blog is more about physical disability but I guess I just wanted to write about how two people with the same condition -one believes its a physical disability and one doesn't think its a disability at all but is claiming TPD!!!!