Loneliness can be one of the great dangers

THE difficulties of being handicapped are manifold, as are the handicaps. Disability can strike through accident or illness, and when the condition leaves a severe handicap people will have to come to terms with their own feelings.
If the handicapped person has a family, the traumatic shock of accepting the condition will have to be borne by the whole family as well as the individual concerned.
The splendid specialised hospital units dealing with various disabilities throughout the country, such as the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital or the Spina Bifida unit in Sheffield, are treatment centres which give expert advice to the relatives as well as the patients.
Also the patients with severe permanent disabilities have to rehabilitate, and being with others handicapped helps them to accept, as they know they are not the only ones to be afflicted.
Inspiration and example are best given by fellow sufferers. If someone is lying in bed paralysed from the neck down and sees someone else with a similar injury sitting in a wheelchair striving to gain a little more independence each day he will be encouraged to think: "If hc can do it so can I."
The many self-help groups in the community are must valuable, as loneliness can be one of the greatest dangers of disabilities. The "stroke clubs" which meet so that people who have suffered a stroke and have lost the power of speech can practise together to regain their faculties is an example of their U sefulness.
The saying "troubles shared are troubles halved" can be yery true; but it is wrong to segregate disabled people and there should be a balance.
A disabled person living in the community should be an accepted part of society. If ablebodied people thought more that it might be they themselves who became disabled one day, society would be an easier place for disabled people to live in.
Some disabled people can be very difficult, but this may be because they have been rejected by their friends and family and have built a hard shell to protect their inner feelings. Love and understanding for each other is the best way of breaking down the barriers.
A few years ago I was helping with holidays for some very severely disabled people from the Hospital of St John of God at Seorton, North Yorkshire. We arranged for them to camp in the Lake District, and as helpers we had volunteer bor stal boys. .
After one of the camps was over a borstal lad said to me when we were back in borstal, where I am on the board of visitors: "I used to take the mickey out of disabled people like them, but having lived with them for a week I have learned they are people the same as anyone else and I will never do it again." Wheelchair users are likely to spend between 20 and 25 per cent of their income on expenses incurred purely as a result of their disability. This is the conclusion of a two year study of the extra costs of disablement published recently by the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases.
It shows that all faced extra expenditure for basic living, yet only those existing at the lowest possible level of income reeeived any financial help. The greatest hardship was suffered when disability forced one member of a family to give up work and look after the disabled one.
The Disablement Income Group claims that the study provides evidence in support of its campaign for an extra expense allowance to help offset the heavy extra costs of disability.
Severely disabled people cannot decorate their homes or do home maintenance or even handle curtains. Clothes receive much wear and tear. Most diiabled people feel the cold and need extra heating. Some need a special diet.
Access and egress should always be in the minds of those people planning new buildings. In a recent survey carried out in one health district it was found there was not one dental surgery without steps. Until one uses a wheelchair these barriers are not noticed, The difference made by a sloped kerb at a zebra crossing at the end of a pavement is amazing. They not only make a difference to disabled people; they help those with prams or pushchairs and shopping baskets.
Some churches have made superb efforts to welcome disabled people among their congregations. Others have done nothing. St Robert's Catholic Church in Harrogate transformed its four sten8 at the entrance into a superb ramp with a non-slip surface, to the great advantage of the disabled who worship there.
Some ambulance men refused to carry disabled people's wheelchairs in the ambulances. To a disabled person that is asking him to leave his legs behind. These sort of policies are cruel and seem totally unnecessary and should not happen. Mobility is another allimportant aspect to the handicapped. It is impossible for a badly handicapped person to use public transport without a great deal of help.
The Mobility Allowance has been a great help to many people, especially the handicapped non-driver. But with the Government not issuing the trike to the freshly disabled person they now have a great problem. Some people have no capital to buy a car, and even if they had, it might not be possible For them to drive a car.
The 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act needs to be implemented. The cut-backs to the social services have not helped, but I do not think local councillors are made awar.e of its contents.
It is at local lever that people must act. They must help the disabled with their many problems, and by giving public support and reminding people in authority about the contents of the Act, which can be obtained from HM Stationery Office, they will be giving valuable service.
if handicapped people can live in their own homes as part of the community so much the better. It is vital that if they have to use a wheelchair that the home is adapted and that the bathroom and kitchen is suitable to their needs.
Much has been done to adapt houses but some local authorities are slow to respond to the needs of the disabled. Help and advice should be forthcoming, but the disabled people themselves and their families can often do a great deal themselves to make life easier.
It may just be as simple as making a ramp at the door. SQMC people may wait for months for a local authority to do this for them when they could do it for themselves.
If the handicap is very severe, the person needs turning at . night to avoid bed-sores, a 24 hour care is needed to keep that person at home. A new scheme has been started in the Rugby area. This is the Crossroads Care Attendant Scheme. Help is organised to come into the home when it is needed.
For example if a young man living alone with his aged mother is a tetraplegic (paralysed from the neck) and needs to be put to bed at night and got up in the morning early so that he can go to work, an attendant comes to his home and puts him to bed at the time he wants, stays the night and gets him up in the morning.
It is hoped this scheme will become active throughout the country, as one of the problems for handicapped people is the hard work they cannot help inflictMg on their families,
When disability hits a family, so often finding out what is available is a great problem. The aids centres which grew from the Disabled Living Foundation, at 346 Kensington High Street, London, WI4, can pass on information about aids and clothing to those people seeking advice.
Many voluntary associations can also help, and their addresses can be obtained front RADAR (Royal Association
for Disability and Rehabilitation) at 25 Mortimer Street, London, WI. Those with spinal injuries can apply to the Spinal Injuries Association, at 126 Albert Street, London, NWI .
Baroness Masham of Ilton