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As part of our Golden Jubilee celebrations we are delighted to announce the launch of our Independent Living Advisory service. This service will mean that, in addition to providing developments of state-of-the art mobility apartments with support on call and on-site 24/7, we will now also be able to take our unparalleled expertise to people living out in the wider community.
This is our Independent Living Advisor’s blog about her experiences.
I am now a month into my new role as Jewish Blind & Disabled’s Independent Living Advisor and am starting to visit some of the very first applicants for the new service. To give you an idea of what I am doing, Mrs R kindly agreed to let me share her story below:
“I was struggling for a long time to get in and out of my bath. I don’t have a separate shower unit so the only way for me to have a wash was to get in the bath.
Due to bad arthritis in my knee, this task was getting harder as I have less mobility. I could just about get in the bath, but getting back out was a very different story. Then I heard from a friend about Jewish Blind & Disabled’s new Independent Living Advisory service. I rang them and soon had an appointment for their Independent Living Advisor to visit me at home.
The ILA, Keren, asked me lots of questions about how I manage with things like; dressing, cooking, washing and so on……
As my main difficulty was getting in and out of my bath we went to my bathroom together so that I could demonstrate how I was struggling. I had considered adapting my bathroom to a wet room but I can’t afford to do this and ideally I would like to live in a Jewish Blind & Disabled mobility apartment, so converting my bath into a wet room was not an option for me as I hope not to be in this flat long enough to make it worthwhile.
Keren measured the bath and suggested that I should use a shower/bath board which is a removable wide strong board providing a seated platform area over the bath which I can sit on and complete a seated transfer without the need of lifting my legs higher over the rim of the bath. I was so very relieved that there was a relatively simple solution to my problem as I find it frustrating losing my independence.
About a week later Keren returned to install the bath board. She spent time showing me how to use it, not that it was difficult but it was nice to see how it works.
Not being able to do something as basic as washing in the bathroom every day is awful. I was getting extremely upset about the loss of my independence and frustrated about my situation. I still hope that a flat will soon become available at Jewish Blind & Disabled but in the meantime, I know I can manage.”
To request a visit from Jewish Blind & Disabled’s Independent Living Advisor please click here to download the application form, or alternatively email ila@jbd.org or call 0208 371 6611 ext 613.
