Time to bang the drum for Alberta's disabled

Perhaps the easy thing to do as we gather around the water cooler is to talk about the new downtown arena deal. It is the biggest story of the day, by an icing call and more.

It would also be the easy thing to do.

But, maybe starting today, some Albertans with disabilities cannot do the easy thing anymore. I am talking about people with disabilities that need to start speaking up against provincial government cutbacks.

I am one of them. And I know I have to do better.

Now over the half century mark, and with cerebral palsy, I really haven’t been a very strong advocate for my fellow brothers and sisters with disabilities.

I have gone on with my life, have been integrated in the workforce, and live in my own home in the community with services.

I am responsible for my own care and have the chance to control it.

I need to do more for others, and realize many people with disabilities are not as fortunate as I am.

There was protest Wednesday afternoon in front of the legislature from family members and people with developmental disabilities over $42 million in cuts.

They had signs and made statements because, sadly, nobody else does.

I am dating myself when I speak of the Alberta Committee of Disabled Groups of Disabled People, formed in the 1970’s. They were grass roots and were very vocal when news stories of provincial cuts to people with disabilities hit the headlines.

They are still around, known as Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities.

GARY MCPHERSON

Why haven’t we heard them bang the drum on this?

The Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities was struck in 1987, a direct tangible result from the Rick Hansen Man In Motion World Tour coming to Alberta.

What is their position on the PDD cuts? Are they planning a statement?

When Gary McPherson passed away three years ago the disabled community lost a powerful voice.

To my mind, we need a leader; we need someone, some group, to speak up to government and create meaningful discussions so all Albertans with disabilities can live with independence and dignity.

We need an unified voice.

Let’s start building that today before the provincial government does more damage.

Ideas? camtait@telus.net is my email.

A green folder with a chart? In my bathroom at home? You're kidding? Right?

Green doesn’t go very will with the color schemes in my bathroom.

But now I have a green folder in my washroom. And what’s worse is what in it — causing one to seriously ask if Alberta Health Services is running scared?

Perhaps more to the point: the provincial government’s health arm, apparently, believes all Albertans with people with disabilities do not have — and should not have — much control in their own care.

And we’re supposedly living in 2013 with progressive thinking?

I have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair. I need assistance with my morning shower, getting onto a bath chair and adjusting the temperature of the water.

Here’s where the green folder enters the equation … and the bathroom. Alberta Health Services has implemented a new program: the person helping me with my shower must check the water temperature three times.

There’s a chart in the green folder and now must be initialed by the staff member after checking the shower temperature.

I seem to have lost the ability to do so myself, despite my 50 plus years of experience, and despite AHS officials not having the class to ask me if I can do so.

But hark! Something like that would take too much time, wouldn’t it? So AHS has decided to deem all people with disabilities in the same boat — tubs, you see, would be too small — and declare all of us mentally unfit to judge our own bath or shower water.

What if I come home next winter after being outside on a cold, stormy night and I am cold — and want a nice hot shower to warm up? Nobody can determine but me the warmth of the water that will warm me up except ... me.

I am insulted thinking that individual right now seems to be running down my shower drain.

I resent my own home, the very place I own with money I have worked for over 30 years, being turned into a mini-institution. Not even a single millimeter.

Over the decades, people with disabilities have fought blood, sweat and tears to live in the community and take risks, rather than co-habituating in the stoic walls of nursing homes and extended care centres.

I am fearful this new initiative — and I’m being kind, here — might be just the beginning of AHS taking more control. What’s next? Signs in our condo’s lobby stating visiting hours are over at 9 p.m.?

We have to ask ourselves why? Why is this happening now?

A good friend made an interesting point Sunday: something probably happened with community care that was handed over to a lawyer who let legal jargon over rule common sense and first-hand experience. AHS had to act, do something — and their new charting system fit the knee jerk reaction perfectly.

I am not, by any means, dismissing the seriousness of the scalding water.   Jeannie Wilson died in 2004 when she suffered burns in a bath tub as a resident living in the Jubilee Nursing Home in Edmonton.
Words cannot describe such a loss. 
I strongly suggest testing water temperatures for people who cannot do it for themselves is mandatory. Absolutely.
But it is fundamentally wrong for Alberta Health Services to march into private homes of mentally alert people and arbitrarily make such intrusive changes. 
It begs the question: how much is Alberta Health Services is, and why are they spraying innocent people with cold water?