Treatment of children with disabilities versus treatment of adults with disabilities

[rainbow_goddess]

Warning: long rant

Comments

[ammos]

I'm kind of horrified to hear what you're you're saying. For a country that most people think of as reasonably savy etc this is not a good thing to hear at all. In the UK there are groups and charities for people of all ages with boh conditions. I admit I don't know all of the names as whilst there are national ones there are also ones run only in certain areas eg by local people for local people.

Hugs I really hope things change. Oh and over here pumps for diabetics have to be fought for on an individual basis no matter if child or adult as whilst I really wouldn't want to be without our NHS health care system there just isn't enough money going in to pay for everything sadly.

[rainbow_goddess]

It's not so much the entire country as the fact that I live in a province with an extremely right-wing, reactionary government who tend to see people with medical problems as a "burden" that they wish would go away.

Other provinces pay for insulin pumps for everyone. Other provinces have programs and services for autistic people regardless of age. I'm just lucky to be stuck in a province where low taxes are more important than people's health care.

[rainbow_goddess]

In this case, other than the existence of the JDRF and the CDA, it's really more my province than it is the entire country. Health care and disability services are a devolved responsibility to the provinces rather than being nationwide, and I live in a province where "keeping taxes abnormally low" is more important than "providing health care services to people who need them." I've even heard members of the cabinet refer to people like me as "burdens."

ETA: Sorry for the double comment. LJ told me there was a "problem" when I posted my first one.

[lilenth]

Even in the UK there are still a lot of invisible adults with conditions while funding largely goes towards children.

There are no services in my area for adults with autism, people act like children magically become neurotypical the minute they turn 18.

Much of the existing government support for learning disorders and mental illness has been cut or had their support criteria redefined to exclude most adults.

The only learning disabilities support available? Doesn't help learning disabled people. The nurse who does it told me it was only for people who were blind or brain damaged, neither of which is a LD (she also said that blind and brain damaged people "can't learn", which had me flabbergasted) so obviously with it being named LD support, Blind or Braindamaged people who need support aren't going to approach it but the LD people who ask get turned down.

[lilacsigil]

The government won't pay for insulin pumps for adults? That's terrible! They're still quite restricted here and are more likely to be used in children than adults, but they're available for people of any age whose diabetes is not well controlled by insulin injections.

Personally, after reading various statements from the "juvenile diabetes" people here, I think they're trying to disassociate themselves from Type 2 diabetics - because of course Type 2 diabetics have that condition because they're fat and lazy and poor and basically terrible people who don't deserve help. Whereas Type 1 diabetics are all adorable cute children!

[fallconsmate]

funny, the first diabetic i ever met (that i know of, because Disease Is Terrible And We Don't Speak Of It, gotta love my family) was an in-his-30's husband and father. we spoke quite frankly of his illness and what a PITA it was to deal with.

and now that i'm a type 2 diabetic (and fat and lazy and terrible although not poor per se) i'd have to say that if you dont have excellent insurance, you dont get help in the united states, either.

nevermind that in my case, i was quite healthy right up till when i wasnt any longer. so there ya go. ;) (although i am STILL CUTE, DAMMIT!!)

[barakta]

That is quite common with other conditions where the children are cute and the adults are scary and smell or something

[nightshade1972]

I love your last paragraph. So true!

[nightshade1972]

I've mentioned before that the Hydrocephalus Assn does the same thing. It wasn't always that way, but when the original founders of the group retired, the focus shifted. Under the original regime, the focus was "we don't care how old you are or how you got hydrocephalus, everyone's welcome". Now it's "let's focus almost exclusively on the children who were born with it!" It's especially irritating to me because I *was* born with it...but now that I'm 40, my input doesn't matter. Unless we're talking financially--they're more than happy to do "fundraising" for "awareness

[kittenmommy]

It's the same with Cerebral Palsy. Adults with CP don't seem to exist. I guess we all drop dead or get magically cured on our eighteenth birthday?

[dimity_blue]

Yay for magical cures!

Oh...wait...

I sometimes wonder if it's because young or middle-aged adults are 'supposed' to be 100% healthy/non-disabled. You'd think people had never heard of chronic illnesses that affect sufferers all their life.

[kittenmommy]

It seems that every CP-related thing I look at, from the CDC's page to Wikipedia, has a pic of a kid in a wheelchair. And every resource is for parents whose children do and will need full-time care.

I'm not a kid. I'm not in a wheelchair. And I don't need a caregiver. But you'd never know that there are people like me with CP walking around out there.

BECAUSE THAT'S UMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!

[nightengalesknd]

So I have CP (diagnosed as an adult) and autism (diagnosed as an adult) and Type 1 diabetes (developed as an adult.) And I walk. And have a job. I'm begining to think I must be a figment of my imagination!