Disabled people lack basic facilities
As a social worker, I feel strongly that people with a handicap have a right to be treated as individuals. They also have a right to participate in normal life in the community in the least restrictive environments appropriate to their needs.
Sadly, this is not the case. All over the country there are mentally and physically handicapped people, elderly people suffering chronic arthritis and other illnesses, many of them in urgent need of shower/toilet facilities, stairlifts and adaptation of their houses for easier movement.
Others, meanwhile, have to use a bucket or commode for a toilet and a galvanised bath.
In local authority and health boards there are hundreds of applications on file for years from such people, all pleading for grant aid.
These grant applications cannot be attended to until the Government makes adequate funding available for basic essentials. The Government must act immediately.
Noel Collins,
St Jude’s,
Midleton,
Co Cork.
