Disability Acronyms Lesson 1
Imagine for a second that one day you will eventually acquire a life-changing disability, like 90% of everyone who lives until old age.
Maybe you fall and break your hip, physically deteriorating from there. Maybe you get into a car wreck and find yourself hospitalized with a spinal cord injury. Maybe you develop a late onset case of Multiple Sclerosis or ALS, which leaves you unable to care for yourself independently. No matter what the cause though, as an American, there will be a time in your future when you will most likely face a decent chance of ending up institutionalized in a nursing home. When that time comes, you will encounter your first human services worker who will sit down next to you to assess your situation and determine based on your available resources, as well as support system, where you will best be able to live out your life.
It is during this time that you’ll wish you paid more attention to acquaintances you’ve known in various circles who live with disabilities or who have cared for loved ones with disabilities. Just imagine if you said the following to your case manager:
I’m a big believer in the IL Philosophy and feel that since ADLs are my only barrier to living in my own home that I should have a PCA through CDS. Don’t you agree?