The Facts
- Around 8.7 million people in Britain are disabled
- 1 in 4 people are either disabled or have a disabled person in their friendship
circle (Source: Centre for Accessible Environments, 2000
- 2 million British people have impaired vision; around 9 million have impaired hearing
- In 2004/05, £1.25bn of Personal Social Services expenditure was on Adults with Physical
disabilities. A third of this expenditure is on day care and home care services
- Disabled people spend £45 billion annually (Source: Department for Work and (Pensions).
What is it?
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 defines a disability as ‘a physical impairment
that has a substantial and long term adverse effect on person´s ability to carry out normal
day to day activities’. Physical disabilities often embrace and include sensory impairments.
Sensory impairment includes people who are blind, partially sighted, deaf, hard of hearing,
and deaf-blind.
Often society is organised in such a way that people with disabilities are excluded from
participation in mainstream social activities. As a result there are often unmet needs for people
with disabilities including transport and mobility issues, housing, rehabilitation services and
community care.
Our Objective
Empowering and enabling adults with a disability to live as independently as possible.
If a person has a physical or sensory impairment, we can provide services that can assist
and help. They may require day care, respite care or services to help at home. More specifically,
the services that we should be able to provide to those people with physical disabilities include:
- Leaving hospital – if a service user is going into hospital and feels that they may need
extra help and care when they return home
- Domestic help – Providing practical help in your own home, for example help with house cleaning,
laundry, shopping/collecting benefits, etc
- Personal care – Providing support and assistance with personal care activities such as getting up
and going to bed, dressing and undressing, washing/bathing, toiletry, and general personal hygiene
tasks
- Respite care – Providing assistance where required and needed to the service user
(or their existing carer). Easing the burden and helping ease the physical and mental
demands of providing care
 – We are only a phone call away.
Use our Branch Finder to
find out your nearest Medico office.
Further Information:
www.dwp.gov.uk – Department for Work and Pensions
www.direct.gov.uk – Public Services and Government information
www.scope.org.uk – Physical Disability Charity focusing on Cerebral Palsy
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