Adaptations to the home

I am a third year student at the University of Leeds, studying BA Social Policy. My dissertation is on research into the experience of adaptations in the home for disabled people.

I am extremely interested on the individual experience and opinions (positive and negative) of disabled people regarding gaining their adaptations. Within this I wish to address matters of attitudes of bodies concerned (such as builders, architects, occupational therapists, landlords, local authorities, etc), issues of funding (for example access to the Disabled Facilities Grant), and the general overall experience of obtaining adaptations to the home, (such as whether adaptations carried out have been beneficial, and will continue to be so, or any concerns you may have or have had about the process.) I will use your experiences as examples to illustrate existing literature on adaptation.

If you could take the time to write me a small paragraph on your individual experiences concerning adaptation to the home and issues surrounding it, I would be extremely grateful. Ideally, as rules regarding email contact differ between forums, it would be beneficial to me if you could post your responses into the group. Hopefully this may generate further discussion which I would like to encourage! The information you give to me will not go beyond my dissertation, and I will ensure that all names and locations will be changed in my work, although your post will be seen to other members of the group. If at any time you wish to withdraw your information from my study please let me know, and I shall do so immediately. I may ask further questions after your initial post, but it is at your discretion whether or not you wish to answer them, due to right to confidentiality and the sensitive nature of my research.

Many thanks in advance for your time, I would be extremely grateful for your help with my research.

Ellie Crawshaw

This could be an interesting topic

Im from Hull, adaptations takes about 10 to 12 months here. Is this quick or slow?

Karl

I needed an access ramp for my front door.
OT came, looked, said no ,can't have one, as the only type they supply would encroach on neighbour's land.

10 months or so later, I called OT again, said i had letter from neighbour saying it was ok, also got fire prevention officer out to look, and letter from him.
OT came out again, looked , and wnt away with report and letters.

Nothing heard of, until 3 years down line, when OT rang to say funding not allowed.

So in the end, I found one myself, went to bank, got money to pay for it, got local firemen to put it down for me. Now at least I can use my front door!

Another one...
needed a shower, wanted a power shower. OT came, looked, said would have to take bath out. (No way, I paid over £600 for that special bath) to put wet room in. All I wanted was a shower, I said. No can do said OT.
So in the end I got local plumber to supply and fit a power shower over my bath, with pump. total cost less that £300

With cut backs in OT services here in Hampshire, it's getting more and more difficult to get anything. and waiting times alone, before an OT visits, can be anything up to 16 weeks! And that's for \"urgent\".

Dear Posh,

Thank you so much for your swift reply, that information is extremely helpful for myself, I am extremely grateful. May I quote you in my research (University Dissertation)?

Also, I was wondering if I could ask you more questions, regarding your experience with OT- do you believe that service cutbacks are the reason for the poor service and lack of assistance or that it is the attitudes of the OT and local authority itself? Also may I ask about the attitudes of the local plumber and local firemen to assisting you?

Many thanks again for your quick reply and help, I am extremely grateful.

Ellie Crawshaw

Dear Karl,

Many thanks for your reply! Unfortunately I am not sure whether this is quick or slow, but hopefully something that I can establish in my research. May I ask if you yourself have had your home adapted by the local authorities in Hull, and how you have found this experience?

Many thanks again for your reply, it is much appreciated.

Ellie Crawshaw

Course you can Ellie, if you wish. it's all common knowledge now anyhow.

Unfortunately, OT services differ from County to County. Where someone needing a shower in say for example, Surrey, could wait around 6-8 weeks from initial enquiry to completion, someone else needing a shower (for the same reason, and with the same disability) in say, Devon, may have to wait around 20-30 weeks.

Notice, I picked two of the \"richest\" counties. There are other factors which need to be considered too, like for instance is the adaptation need in a rural or urban property, and what is the ratio of need. Also, is the property owner occupied, or rental, and if rented, is it a private landlord, or Housing Association. These are all factors which must be considered.

I think the OT's in our area have a very difficult job, there are only ( AFAIK) 6 OT's covering the whole county!
And with their funding being cut year on year, they are having to make difficult decisions, and very often are having to go with cheaper (and not such good quality) alternatives.<br><br>Post edited by: Posh, at: 2009/02/03 17:26

just a quick note to say ellie I come from devon and we are not one of the riches counties sorry to contridict you posh but we have one of the lowest income wages and highest waterbills and councle tax's
I must admit the councle have been brilliant for adaptions here but that was before the goal post changed I dont think it would be quite so swift to get help now

Dear Ducky,

Thank you for contributing to my thread- I really appreciate all the help everyone has been giving me regarding my research! Can I ask you why you believe that the council has been particularly helpful and why you believe it would not be so presently, or if you could comment upon your own experiences with the council, for example how long it took them to carry out your adaptations if relevant and how satisfactory they were? I would be ever so grateful. If you don’t wish to make this information public, (*NB: apologies everyone, I should have mentioned this previously), you can post on my survey confidentially at FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?s...qht5p5fwzvqooz542731


Thank you so much for your contributions so far though, they will be extremely helpful in my research!
Ellie

Dear Posh,
Thank you also for your contributions, you have been extremely helpful to me and I really appreciate it. If at a later date you think of anything relevant to adaptations (whether it be your own experience or just generally) I’d be very grateful if you could post it on this thread, I am researching until late April, and any information I can gather will be extremely useful to me! Again, please feel free to follow the link above and contribute your experiences although the research question does not differ from that in this thread, and you have already been so kind to comment in depth upon your own experience regarding adaptations. Thank you once again though, please feel free to continue posting upon this topic and to discuss it with other members as I feel it is an extremely interesting topic of debate!
Ellie

Actually Ducky, statistically, (years 2005-2007) Devon, Surrey, Hampshire and Gloucestershire, have been the top four of the \&quot;richest counties\&quot; in the UK, in that order.

I think perhaps they work it out on house prices,and earnings (amongst other things) rather than as you suggest.

Perhaps there are pockets, as there are in Hants (Portsmouth &amp; Iof W) where there are low wage earners, or a lot of peopple on Benefits, but then that's the same everywhere.

Now I would have thought Surrey, and parts of London would have been on that list, but they are way down it

Perhaps also, things have changed in recent years, (sorry, have had other things to occupy me), and the list has changed somewhat.<br><br>Post edited by: Posh, at: 2009/02/06 07:25

elliecrawshaw wrote:

Dear Posh,

..................

Also, I was wondering if I could ask you more questions, ................ Also may I ask about the attitudes of the local plumber and local firemen to assisting you?

Many thanks again for your quick reply and help, I am extremely grateful.

Ellie Crawshaw

Hi Eliie,
Attitudes of local plumber and firemen?

They were lovely, and couldn't do enough to help.
Plumber was one I found via the Local Lion's Club branch.
He even put in extra holders at different heights, so I can use the shower either standing or sitting. Lovely guy.
The firemen, well. Around here, I'm quite well known, infamous almost, he he. I did them a favour during a fundraising drive they were doing. And we are lucky we have a sense of community here - everyone knows everyone else. The FPO for this area is actually the SO! So he knew what I was doing, as he wrote the report for the OT! I kept them in the loop, so to speak, and when the ramp arrived, it being bespoke (made to measure for the space) and sheet steel and very heavy, they were only too pleased to help out and put it down for me (in return for a little boost to the charity fund).

anything esle you wanna know, just ask. you have my email addy (which I don't give out to everyone, so you're lucky) if you'd rather do it that way.

Dear Everyone,

Apologies for my lack of replies in the last few days, my internet connection has been down (the post office lost the payment!)

Just to let you know I really appreciate all of your replies so far, they have been so helpful and I have learnt so much from them already. I have now created my final questionnaire (an in depth assessment of how much input disabled people have into their home adaptations regarding design, so looking at the role of occupational therapists and contractors within this). If anybody wishes to complete this, or knows anyone who would be interested in completing it, the link is as follows: www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=10170yivkm

Once again please let me thank all of you for your kindess in assisting me with my research, I am extremely grateful and can't express my thanks enough to you all!

If you have any comments or feedback please do not hesitate to contact me- please feel free to post in the forum or you can find my email address by following the link to my questionnaire.

Ellie

Once again I'm posting on an old thread, but there is so much for me to catch up with and I'm so new to this forum, so please forgive my tardiness.

I don't live in the UK now so my experiences of home adaptions are different. Had I lived in my own home, which I lost when I became disabled, and wouldn't have been adaptable in any case, or in public housing, the Ministry of Health would have paid for any necessary adaptions.

But I live in a rented bungalow and so I even had to pay for a ramp/path in order to get from the pavement to my home. Or my home to the pavement.

I have not had one thing paid for by either the Local Authority or the Ministry of Health. Everything I have had to do has had to be taken from my disability pensions and allowances, which has meant that I can't have a car or a carer, and not even a cleaner at the moment, as I need the money in order to do things to my home to enable me to live independently.

It's not easy, but then whoever said life was supposed to be easy, let alone disabled life.