One Voice - for disabled people
Welcome to the Summer Newsletter
We’ve got some timely information in the Newsletter on accessible holiday venues, and local events and activities of interest.
We have report-backs from our AGM and from the City Show, where One Voice had a stall on page 3.
There is also a fascinating article from our Chair on page 5, about the Internet as a tool in managing depression.
Also in this time of cutbacks and unemployment, a new mentoring and support service for anyone with an idea or dream about running a business or services – that’s on page 7.
Also in your newsletter, local news, some personal opinions and pieces and the usual Sudoku competition on page 8
Thanks to the people who contacted us to complement us on the new design – it’s the first time we have changed something and had only positive comments!
If you have an idea for an article, or want to write one yourself, contact us. One Voice welcomes the involvement of disabled people in providing the content of this newsletter, your ideas help and views make this newsletter yours.
You can get this newsletter in large print, audio cd or online—let us know what format you need.
The views in this newsletter are those of the article writers, they are not always what One Voice thinks.
We are coming up to an Election, so please tell us any of your political news stories, so we can feature them in our newsletter or on our blog (www.1voice.org.uk/blog/ ).
We will be producing an election special newsletter to help you make choices about who to vote for.
Send in questions you want put to the local (Wolverhampton) candidates. We pick 10 questions and send them to all the candidates, and publish the answers we get. Sometimes a party does not respond – we tell you that too.
All we ask is the questions have something to do with disability and disabled people, because those are not the questions that get asked by news outlets. If you want to follow what the candidates say about the economy, or defence, or education etc, you can find it out from tv, radio or print news, we want to find out the answers to questions we have as disabled people, so please send us your questions, so we can put them to the candidates!
Cassandra’s Column
Regular readers will know that I do not have a particularly liberal view on benefits (although nor do the Lib-Dems it seems), but can the new Government really be serious about benefits bounty hunters?
Is that the world we want to live in, where one group of people are paid to invade the privacy of others, research every aspect of their lives and generally hunt them down, all to find out whether they are cheating the benefits system or not? It sounds like one of those “State gone mad” scifi films with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And surely it must be against the Human Rights Act right to Privacy and Freedom from inhuman treatment – or is that why the Government was talking about scrapping the Human Rights Act.
And how would such a system work that allowed these benefits bounty hunters to go on fishing expeditions – where would they get their information from and what would the Data Commissioner have to say about it?
What expertise will these Bounty Hunters have? For example the Mobility part of the Disability Living Allowance is awarded based on a person’s ability to walk, and looks at whether s/he is in severe discomfort when s/he walks – how is a Bounty Hunter able to make that judgement, and will that make him/her more or less likely to report the disabled person – since Bounty Hunters are paid on the people they bring in, it is likely they will report the person, who then has their benefits suspended and has to go through the long and difficult process of a tribunal.
What about people on Employment Support – one of the tests is whether a person is able to stand for a certain period of time – if the Bounty Hunter sees that person standing in a supermarket queue for 15 minutes because they have no choice, will he bring that person in? Again the point about the benefit is can a person stand (or sit) for a certain time without pain, or without an effect on them the next day, but a Bounty Hunter wont be able to judge this.
Next we come to the Government’s claims on how much they’d save – the figures have kept changing throughout the debate, but one thing that has become clear is that their claims of how much money is claimed in fraud include the mistakes and overpayments by the benefits agency – how can this be solely interpreted as the fault of the claimant. The benefits system is very complicated, and the letters from the benefits agency are difficult to understand – in many cases, I would think a person does not know they are being overpaid until the benefits agency tells them so. Then they have to try to pay it back in a short time when they are already on a household income that keeps them just above the poverty line.
There are definitely benefits cheats, and they should be stopped, but criminalising all the people on benefits is not the way to do it. John Humphries in interviews with the Minister made the point that only 20% of the figure they were touting was actually the result of fraud – this was not denied.
So what is all this about really?
Is it picking a soft target that not too many will disagree with?
And how do the figures add up – is this a really important saving?
cost of benefits fraud = 1.5 billion
cost of administrative errors = 3.8 billion
costs of tax evasion = 15.2 billion
Estimated cost of the Iraq War just for 2010 = 20 billion
So just how different is this Government from all the other Tory Governments?
The views in this piece are Cassandra’s they are not necessarily what One Voice thinks.
The AGM in July was pronounced a success by all who attended.
Many new people came and joined in, and quite a few new faces were elected to your management group.
We did have some worries in the run-up to the meeting, because many people contacted us to tell us they would be on holiday, or asked us why we were having the meeting so late in the year, so we thought that we would put the AGM date back to June for 2011 – please let us know what you think of a June AGM, because we want you to be there!
This year we had to have a new venue because The Maltings closed down – we went to Albert Road, but some people found that the acoustics were not very good, so we are looking for a different venue for 2011– Have you been to a really good accessible venue in Wolverhampton? Let us know your ideas.
The weekend of 10th and 11th July was the city show,
- the weather was warm and sunny and it brought the
people out in flocks.
There was plenty of attractions like monster trucks
and medieval fighting, there were tents with information
on all sorts of things like bus timetables and fuel
efficiency stalls with second hand books and charities
with raffle tickets of which I was a winner
(only £5, but better than nothing,) and bric a brac.
This year One voice was lucky enough to have a stall, because Desmond cox { name of company] sponsored us by paying for our pitch in the diversity tent.
I was one of several volunteers who staffed the stall, and I thought it was very rewarding, lots of people came for a chat, took leaflets away and the One Voice directories went very fast as well!
We were able to tell lots of new people what One Voice was and what we did, and by Sunday we had no leaflets left at all, so we took people’s details and sent information to them the following weeks.
I found it very satisfying because I feel that we got the word out to few more people, thus arming them with a bit of knowledge which in turn may help disabled people all over Wolverhampton to help themselves, or at least know where to turn to in times of trouble, just like I did when I was first off work and did not know where to turn when I was worried about losing my job when I was off sick, so thanks to one voice for helping me, and now it is a pleasure to help you.
By Sue Fermoyle (One Voice volunteer)
Government Cuts Consultation
On Friday 10 July, the government launched a new website
http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/
The website aims to let us have our say about public spending under the its spending review. Government will be looking at the responses over the summer, so that they can publish their decisions in October. The discussions and decisions the government takes over the summer will determine how public money will be spent for the next four years.
You should have your say, as disability benefits and care costs look likely to be targets.
The website asks you for your idea on cuts or how the Government could do things differently – the aim being to save money.
Equality Act
The Equality Act has become law, and the major provisions were due to come into force in October, but no one is quite sure what its provisions will be.
The new Con-Dem Government has (according to announcements on the Government website), gone through several changes of mind over what provisions will be brought in on October 1st.
It now seems that on October 1st the ‘tidying up’ part of the act will come into force – bringing together the different equality strands into one act, making the grounds to bring cases more or less uniform, tidying up some anomalies on the definition of disability etc.
The major parts of the act though – the bits on positive discrimination, and the bits that strengthen the duties of public sector bodies like Councils, Health Authorities, Police, to stamp out discrimination – will NOT be coming in October, and have been put back to sometime in the Spring.
It is hoped that this time will not be used to weaken the provisions of the Act – we expect Governments of any hue to be dedicated to the equality of it’s citizens, and to wish to overcome barriers to that equality.
Announcements are expected from the Government from October onwards.
UN Convention on Rights for disabled people
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published a new guide on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons to help us know more about our rights and how to use them to challenge injustice and inequality.
The Convention, which was signed by the UK government last year, covers health, education, employment, security, independent living and access to information and justice, and describes what the government has agreed to do by next July.
You can get a copy of the guide on their website here:
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/a-guide-to-the-un-disability-convention/
You can also watch a signed video version from the same page.
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We know the power of the internet as a super information highway tool for research or knowledge, easy convenient shopping, finding lost friends via social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My Space, these sites have now become part of our daily lives.
The growth of these sites has been meteoric, if we look at Facebook, it has gone from its launch in 2004 to 500 million active users and if it was a country it would be one of the most populous countries in the world.
We use the internet through blogging to put our thoughts, views or what we have been doing with our lives out there in cyberspace for other people to read.
So can the internet help us manage our depression?
As a deaf person who has suffered with major depression and anxiety the internet has certainly empowered me but and it is a big but, I have to set boundaries on its use, as I find the hours going by without actual outcomes which in my mental health scenario is not good, as lack of sleep and too many open ended tasks can overwhelm and stress.
How does the internet help me, well, this is my own personal experience but firstly, it provides information. I have found out more about my own personal condition than from my Psychiatric Consultant just by using internet search engines to visit websites related to mental health. I have discovered and understand more about the condition, the why’s and why not of certain medication, how an improved diet can also help me. The cliché knowledge is power is true, I don’t use the internet to self diagnose but to gain a better understanding of my treatment as I do find communication to mental health service users poor. The internet is a positive and powerful tool for information on depression or how to access mental health services.
Secondly, my condition tends to isolate me as does my deafness so through the use of email or Social Networking I can keep in contact with other people even if I’m feeling particularly agoraphobic or anxious. There are people out there with common and shared experience; one of my social network groups is Recipients of Hearing Dogs, although I’ve not personally met these people, I can feel a kinship with, if Hettie, my Hearing Dog is sick, this causes me great upset. However, I can share this and other users of the network can post their thoughts, their messages of support, their own experience which at a time of inner turmoil can bring great strength and comfort.
Thirdly, if we expand the Social Networks into online forums or blogs we can ‘meet and share’ our issues or thoughts, we can use them for help. An example, it’s late at night, being deaf I can’t use the telephone but want to speak to the Samaritans I can email them my thoughts, which can be easier to offload than speaking. A response will be sent to me and by email. Alternatively I can join an online mental health forum and post my feelings, other forum members ranging from those also living with mental health issues to medical professionals may post a response that again can help get through an bad episode. These forums where people discuss or offer solutions can give us the tools to help ourselves maybe provide an answer we are looking for, maybe to seek alternative therapies or to challenge our care.
Ian n Hettie
Beyond Experience
Last month one of our volunteers emailed us some fab pictures of him paragliding across midland countryside, so we asked him to tell us all about how we could do the same!
It is unusual for one of the more “extreme” activities to be available to people with substantial physical impairments, but Beyond Experience at Church Stretton is a really disability friendly company.
Mark Dann does tandem flight with people with mobility or hand impairments.
Long Mynd is the take-off point, and you have to be prepared to postpone to another day if the wind speed is not right.
It costs £99, but you can get a voucher from Flyability for £60 towards cost.
The voucher is part of an initiative to include disabled people by the British Hang Gliding & Paraglinding Association.
You can find out more here:
http://www.flyability.org.uk/
Information on Accessible UK holiday venues
There are now some really useful websites for disabled people who want to find accessible holiday accommodation in the UK or even Europe.
Tourism for All (http://www.tourismforall.org.uk/) have information and feedback from disabled people plus a searchable directory of holiday accommodation, holidays for people with specific impairments, accessible coaches, accessibility of attractions etc.
Accessible Accomodation (www.accessibleaccomodation.com ) lets you search the area you want to visit to see what is available with good access.
For respite holidays, the company Vitalise (www.vitalise.org.uk ) have their own short break venues that are fully accessible – you can download brochures at their website.
Disabled United (www.disabledunited.com) is a business supported website with information on a lot of different things, but they also have information on accessible holiday properties and guest places, with photos and good access information, which is really hard for wheelchair users and other mobility impaired people to get hold of.
(written by Pathways to Enterprise staff)
An exciting new project, called “Pathways to Enterprise”, is up and running in Wolverhampton to encourage and help individuals who would like to start their own business but don’t know where to begin; and to help people who may never have considered self employment as an option before.
The Enterprise coaches have been appointed by Wolverhampton Network Consortium to start this work in the city, although subject to funding, the project will be rolled out to the wider Black Country from September 2010.
Engagement Officers will support and encourage those with business ideas, provide information and guidance on career changes, and give a clear pathway to individuals, before feeding them in to other business support services. They will stimulate business ideas in people who may have a hobby or interest, which, with some guidance, can be turned into a business, thus turning your ‘passions into profits’! The coaches will also act as a mentors to individuals, supporting them on their journey from a simple business idea right through to a draft business plan.
The coaches will be accessible to individuals in any part of the city and can come and meet people in a location to suit them, from a city centre cafe to a community centre.
For more information about this exciting project, contact Enterprise Coaches:
Claire Peake (Direct): 01902 572293 – (mobile) 07504238947
Manjeet Singh (Direct): 01902 572034 – (mobile) 07852340256
From September 2010 the project will be supported by:
Wolverhampton Network Consortium, European Regional Development Fund, Wolverhampton City Council, Walsall Housing Group and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
One Voice is hosting the Disabled People’s Network in Wolverhampton for the rest of the financial year.
We recently held interviews to find a suitable person to develop the network, and we selected Kevin Bailey as the best person for the job.
Kevin is well known to some One Voice service users as an advocate – we hope many more of you will get to know him through the course of his work.
Disability organisations run by disabled people tend to spring up, run out of funding or volunteers and disappear.
When One Voice did some work with disabled people’s groups for the disability network a few years ago, 3 groups closed through lack of funding or resources within a year.
The Disability Network should help disabled people’s groups to evolve and sustain themselves, including helping them to develop agendas and action plans, and providing help with minutes in the beginning.
The network will also work with training providers and others to make training opportunities more accessible in Wolverhampton. The Network will also be organising a number of events, including one for International Day of Disabled People in December – if you have any ideas or want to become involved, contact Kevin at the One Voice office.
Building Schools for the Future - One Voice saw the original plans for Highfields school and Tettenhall. We thought there where some problems for disabled access so we exchanged some comments with the architects.
The architects came down from London to meet us last month, and have made some very positive changes to the buildings.
If you want to get involved in this or any other access work, contact the office
The One Voice Advocacy Project has just completed it’s 3rd year of training people with long term impairments. The July training was a great success with 12 people completing the OCN Level 1 and Level 2 in Advocacy Skills. The new advocates will begin to train with clients by shadowing the Advocacy Coordinator and with additional support from the working advocates. The feedback from the training was excellent with comments such as: “The course was really enjoyable and well delivered. The tutor was really friendly and made time to answer questions. It really got my brain working.” “The course was lead well with Mary (the tutor) as she is a warm, reassuring and patient person” “There was a lot of information to take in within the 3 days but with the use of roleplay and group work, the information became understandable. I would encourage other people to do this course, the support throughout has been brilliant.”