Insufficient support - a friend's story.

At the start of May, a good friend of mine was in hospital having had back surgery. She has a long-term chronic pain condition and is a wheelchair user. As well as this mobility disability, she is, as she puts it, "pretty much blind" and uses a guide dog who is also an assistance dog. In order to function independently at home she needs personal assistance (PA) support. She requires the power wheelchair and her guide dog to be able to leave her home. In advance of going into hospital she was promised additional PA support hours, which were essential to her recovery from surgery. She was not given these hours. She to go home alone and try to cope with recovery from surgery, her sensory disability and her mobility disability. She kept a video diary of her experiences over the next three to four weeks, beginning the night before she was discharged from hospital. It makes for difficult viewing at times as well as being inspiring and powerful. It is a telling indictment of the Irish healthcare system, services and support for people with disabilities in this country, inequalities, exclusion, political disenfranchisement, and much else besides. Watch it.

Diary of Insufficient Support - Day 0

Diary of Insufficient Support - Day 1

Diary of Insufficient Support - Day 2

I'm not going to embed all the videos here but you can see them all in this playlist:

My Diary of Insufficient Support - playlist

And you can follow her YouTube channel here:

Colleenocasturme on YouTube

It is wrong that she or anyone would have to experience this kind of lack of care. She says it all better than I ever could, and I don't want to speak for her. Hers is a powerful voice. I hope it will be listened to.