From July this year a whole bunch of Australians, myself included, have been having meetings with centrelink about their future on the DSP. The new regulations for the DSP have made a lot of people very nervous - and for very good reason. I thought I was safe because my condition is, actually, quite debilitating and I am not really employable or able to study consistently and have only been on it for a short time compared to thousands of others (who to be completely honest, I thought they would start re-interviewing etc first). Apparently I was wrong. Contrary to incredibly ignorant belief, it is not easy to get the DSP, it is actually quite difficult - you need to satisfy a number of criteria and have medical documentation stating that you do by a treating doctor who has managed your case for long enough to know you and even then its not guaranteed because the assessment is carried out by a person employed by the government who has no medical training and might just be having a bad day or not believe your condition exists because they havent heard of it. Also contrary to ignorant (and more popular than it should be) belief most disabled people do actually want to be fully functioning, employable and employed, contributing members of society - but its not as simple as that. Some people with disability require special equipment or special access to their workplace, some require special working conditions, flexible hours or the option of working from home on occasion, some may require extra support and training to get them going etc etc. I dont talk about my illness(es) often, I could a lot more than I do because they affect most things I do and every day of my life Most of the time I dont look sick so it can be very hard to explain exactly what is wrong with me and it is complicated. This month is Dysautonomia awareness month so I will be posting about it more than I usually do, feel free to ignore, but I would love it if my friends could take interest and learn up about it as its not actually that rare and needs attention. Yes I am aware that it is also breast cancer awareness month, I didnt choose October, somebody else did and it wasnt the greatest plan but there it is. If youve read this whole thing youre awesome, you totally rock and you get a gold star
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:04:06 +0000
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