Jacqui has a not very positive OT assessment for a stairlift – ”You don’t meet our criterea’….

Hello, this is Jacqui Bingham. Well, I feel really chuffed with myself today. Because I have Chronic Fatigue I do have to pace myself, and after being at the Dementia Diaries meet up, which was wonderful, I do have to pace myself back again to increase my energy levels up again. So when I came back I rested, yesterday I was in bed all day. Today I was getting up late, but there was a phone call at 9 o’clock, and this lady asked if she could come and see me at 10 o’clock, because she was going to do an assessment to see about having a stairlift So I told her that I’d been to Dementia Diaries and i was recovering, but we said yes she could come. So 10 o’clock she came, and I didn’t get up and get dressed, I came down in my gown. She started asking me lots of questions and I said that I had Alzheimer’s, but she carried on you know, fast, asking questions : “and what about this, and can you do this and are you having this medication for the depression and then, then I was getting a bit tired so I got her to slow down. Then she wanted to see me going up the stairs and down the stairs, outside, inside, here, there. So I did all that and now I’m a bit tired! And she started to tell me that she’ll send the fitter round to put up some handrails up. Yes I said that’s good. Then she tells me she’s going to get him to put a long handrail up by the stairs. I said “no I don’t want that!” I was very proud of myself. I stood my ground. And I said “I want a stairlift!” “Oh!” she said “you don’t meet our criteria” I said “well I want a stairlift, I don’t want a big rail going up there”. “Oh” she said “but you don’t meet our criteria”. Well you know I’m not daft I’ve said before I might have dementia but I’m not stupid yet and I heard you love. I don’t meet your criteria but I don’t want a long thing going up there. So anyway I stood my ground. So he’s coming to do the handrails but what I’ve done is I am going to have a look at getting my own stairlift and I will do it the way I want. She then said to me that it wasn’t good for me to not be using my knees and not be doing this and not be doing that, and she started to tell me what I should be doing for my mental health. And I looked at her, well, I didn’t throw her out, and I wasn’t rude, but I’m really tired of these people who come into my home or when I go to the clinic who are so good at telling me what I should and shouldn’t be doing. You know I do know my own body. I know what’s good for me, I know I’m a quiet person, and I do like being quiet, I’ve always been this way and I’m perfectly happy like this, it’s ok for me. Please don’t come in my home and tell me how I should be and what’s good for me. Well I’m really chuffed so thanks for coming today and getting me to feel confident again. Thank you, bye bye.