#long-term disability

[etakeh]

Bad news, y'all. People's...um...long-term, possibly life-long disability that could have been prevented by people taking simple steps, or maybe if the CDC had not acted like covid wasn't magicked away...

well, it's hurting the economy.

Some highlights!

Almost one-third of all workers infected with Covid-19 suffered or are suffering from Long Covid, with the percentage peaking during the initial phase of the pandemic and falling over time.

The percentage of female workers with Long Covid (37 percent) was 11 points higher than that of male workers (26 percent).

Forty percent of workers with Long Covid returned to work within 60 days of infection while still receiving medical treatment.

Nearly all workers with comorbidities or those hospitalized for their initial infection experienced Long Covid.

The incidence of Long Covid in essential workers may be higher than the data suggests, creating a potential blind spot for policymakers.

Ok hands up if none of this surprises you at all. Hoooboy that's a lot of hands.

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

[joltrify]

I'd kill for more ben 10 alien disabilities <3 i think pesky dust would look great in your style.

She's Watermelon Flavored~

(I threw in the Orthopeterran dev. sketch I made before I conceptualized the disability aid for the girlie since I didn't want it to go to waste ;w;)

[hermitmoss]

dog motif this, i'm his guard that. can we talk about the disability i want to talk about how vimes knows vetinari's body in maybe the second most intimate way (being aware of what a disabled person's Situation is). everyone knows it's OOC for vetinari to ride off, but vimes says character be damned i don't think he could ride a horse. yes it's charged and sort of funny but in feet of clay when vimes wants to stay with him and it's transparently to tend to him - i can tell you there is nothing more truly an act of love than not for a second thinking you are a burden for your illness and impairment, just immediately wanting to shove everything else in your life off the table and be with you even if it doesn't do any good.

[beatingtheouijaboardallegations]

i love you nonspeakers. i love you nonverbal people.

i love you nonverbal people who prefer to be called nonverbal. i love you nonspeaking people who prefer to be called nonspeaking. i love you nonspeaking nonverbal people who tired of debate about terminology or can’t keep up with it and just want be heard and communication rights respected.

i love you people who not speak ever since birth ( hi! ). i love you people who use to speak but experience regression / catatonia / burnout or with degenerative physical disabilities. i love you nonspeaking nonverbal people with acquired disabilities.

i love you multimodal communicators. i love you people with complex communication needs. i love you apraxic people who are unreliably speaking. i love you minimally verbal people. i love you semiverbal people. i love you speaking people with selective mutism with intermittent speech ( who listen to us and not speak over )

I love you nonspeaking nonverbal autistic people. i love you nonspeaking / nonverbal people with other intellectual & developmental disabilities. i love you nonspeaking / nonverbal people with apraxia / dyspraxia ( full body or apraxia of speech ) . I love you nonspeaking nonverbal people with brain injury with stroke with aphasia with genetic disorders. i love you nonspeaking / nonverbal people with mental health disabilities that affect language ( eg schizophrenia ) .

I love you AAC users. I love you users of text based AAC. I love you users of picture based AAC. I love you users of low tech AAC. I love you people who can’t afford the big expensive robust systems and rely on free apps or low tech for that reason. I love you people who need small grid size. I love you people who need visual accommodations to AAC like high contrast. I love you people who need alternate access like switch , eye gaze , head track , joystick , partner assisted scanning to make AAC accessible. I love you nonspeaking / nonverbal people who use sign languages. I love you picture card users. I love you letter board users. I love you people who need human support to use AAC , people who use methods like FC and RPM and S2C and all the “ discredited ” method that are constant at risk of being take away from you.

I love you nonspeaking nonverbal people who haven’t found a way to communicate with words that works for them yet. i love you people who communicate mostly or entirely with behavior with gesture with pointing with vocal sounds not words. i love you people who only way communicate is what the system calls “challenging behavior.” I love you people who communicate through violent meltdown, who SIB and hurt others , run away unsafely , destroy property etc and who are punish institutionalize incarcerate or other abused oppressed instead of helped find other way to communicate. i love you nonverbal nonspeaking people who won’t ever see this post, who under institution control or informal more subtle control and don’t have access to social media , or who disability make social media hard , or who just don't like / have interest in being on here (was me for a while !)

I love you nonverbal and nonspeaking people who have found a home in the nonverbal / high support need community on here and who feel like experience is represent. i love you nonverbal and nonspeaking people who have found a home in offline AAC / nonspeaking world like CommunicationFirst and the spellling to communicate conferences. I love you nonverbal and nonspeaking people who not find their " home " in the disability / nonverbal nonspeaking community yet , who not see own experience represent anywhere.

i love you nonspeakers of color. i love you nonspeaking nonverbal queer and trans people. i love you physically disabled nonspeaking / nonverbal people. i love you mentally ill / Mad nonspeaking nonverbal people. i love you poor nonspeaking nonverbal people. i love you nonspeaking / nonverbal people not from global north.

i love you nonverbal people. i love you nonspeaking people. we are great and we deserve to be heard.

[rachymarie]

Tryna get advice for anything to do with your own schizospec disorder on Google be like:

"tHe 4 SuBtYpEs:" "PaRaNoiD sChiZoPhReNiA" "Healthline" "WebMd" "My schizophrenic mother was an abusive a-hole so now i will NEVER trust another schizospec again"

We get that you are hurting but we are not your mum and we are hurting too!

[sleepyyghostt]

flipping thru pages of a pathology textbook like its a shopping catalogue trying to pick out something nice for the fictional character

[spectrumgarden]

Every time I see someone say "& that's why I'm not getting diagnosed" in regards to some sort of discrimination against an autistic person by police / government / the judicial system / health care system / school system ... it's like. It just hurts. I get so jealous. I needed a diagnosis so I could continue to attend school with a 1-1 support worker. I needed a diagnosis so I could get my disability ID, which is the only way I can take public transport on 2 routes by myself, & the only way its possible for someone else to accompany me everywhere else without it costing a fortune. I needed a diagnosis so my AAC device would be covered. I needed a diagnosis so specific autism therapy would be covered. I need(ed) a diagnosis so my at home care would be covered.

I wish it could've been my choice whether I'm at risk of legal discrimination...

[cataclysmcrows]

society if laios's leg didnt get magically reattached

[bitchesgetriches]

✨NEW POST!✨

Long-Term Disability Insurance Is a Necessity… and a Scam

All month long we're covering disability rights issues in honor of Disability Pride Month.

[luinhealthcare]

Does Hyrule mind teaching how to assess a patient??👉👈

"You... want to learn how to assess patients?" Hyrule asked hesitantly.

Wild shrugged. "What if I want to be an EMT?"

"You also said you wanted to be a chef in the hospital."

"I can do both, you know."

Hyrule laughed. "I suppose so. Well... we'll need a patient for this to work."

Wild immediately snatched Sky, who yelped as his friend snaked a hand around his wrist. "Sky's the patient, heaven knows he needs to be looked over anyway."

"Look who's talking, Mr. I-Have-Seizures-and-Don't-Tell-Anybody," Sky grumbled as he was manhandled to sit between the other two.

"Well, everyone knows now."

Hyrule and Sky gave Wild a scalding look. Adequately apologetic, Wild shrugged sheepishly.

"Anyway," Hyrule sighed, shifting his focus to Sky. "Assessments come in different forms. You've got a primary and a secondary assessment. Primary is kind of a general overview and checking for life threatening stuff, secondary is in-depth on what the issue actually is. Make sense?"

Wild nodded.

"Great!" Hyrule continued with a smile. "Okay. Sky's our patient. Sky, you got shot once, right?"

Sky nodded, and Wild balked. "He what?!"

"It was a long time ago," Sky waved a dismissive hand.

"Okay, so that's our scenario," Hyrule said, standing. "We're dispatched for a 21-year-old male with a GSW--"

"That means gunshot wound, right?"

"Yeah. GSW, conscious patient. That's all we've got. So, you get on scene, and the very first thing you do is check for scene safety. If the scene isn't safe, we're not going in. First thing you're taught in EMS - your own safety comes first, because if you're shot you can't help the patient. It's you, your partner, then the patient."

"How often do you actually listen to that rule?" Sky asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's not what we're learning today," Hyrule waved off easily. It was pretty common knowledge that while he would never put his partner's life at risk, he'd gotten himself into dicey situations before. But he knew how to get himself out of those situations too. "So, we determine the scene is safe. Next, is our primary assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to check for life threatening things, and an overview of major body systems. Neuro status, bleeding, and your ABCs: Airway, Breathing, Circulation.

"The situation is pretty dynamic, like sometimes you walk up and somebody's got an arterial bleed and spurting blood everywhere, your assessment stops right there and you go fix that bleed. But generally you'll have time to do the entire primary assessment."

"Okay, so neuro and ABCs?"

"Yeah. And the good thing is that most of it happens all at once, you know? You walk up to Sky and he looks at you, then boom, you've got a good neuro - he's awake, he's alert. He may not be oriented, but you can figure that out by just talking to him. And by this point you can tell if there's life threatening bleeding. Then it's ABCs - is his airway patent, or open? Is he breathing, and is he doing so normally? Is his skin warm, dry, and normal tone for him? You can literally do al these things by just walking into the room and looking at him for five seconds. The primary assessment is done really fast and, the more times you do it, basically automatically."

"What would be an example of something being wrong?" Wild askd.

Hyrule glanced at him. "When I got on scene for your crash, you were unconscious and unresponsive--in other words, you were not only unconscious, but nothing would wake you up--and your breathing was gurgling sounding because you had blood in your airway."

Glancing at Sky, Hyrule said, "Sky can give us an example of a not great primary assessment, I'm sure."

Helpfully, Sky immediately flopped off the chair he was sitting on, collapsing to the ground with a crash. Wild laughed, and footsteps rushed from upstairs into the living room.

Twilight immediately froze in the entranceway, eyes wide and fixed on Sky. "Sky, what the--guys what the hell is hap--"

Sky perked up immediately. "Oh, sorry! I'm just helping Hyrule teach Wild!"

Twilight froze a moment and then sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose and grumbling under his breath.

Hyrule smiled, pointing at Twilight. "He just perfectly showed a good primary assessment looks like! He walked in and saw the patient down on the ground, tried to figure out a neuro by calling out to him, and when Sky woke up he immediately could tell he was fine. Neuro intact, not bleeding, had a patent airway because he's talking, breathing normally, and skin looks normal."

"I hate all of you," Twilight groaned, walking out of the room.

"Okay, but by skin looking normal... what does it mean when it doesn't?" Wild asked.

"Your skin can tell a story," Hyrule explained. "If you're diaphoretic, which means sweating, something is likely wrong. Though it depends on context - if your patient's sweaty but they were just exercising, it makes sense. If Sky's sweaty on the ground after being shot, he's in shock. If the skin is cool, the body isn't circulating well - that can sap the color right out of your skin - the lighter your skin tone the more notable it is, but darker skin tones can become paler too. A lot of times with darker skin tones you'll want to look at their palms or their lips, that'll help you determine it. Another color is grey - that usually means cardiac and it's bad. So skin can tell you a lot!"

"How did my skin look?" Wild questioned, curious.

"Pale," Hyrule immediately answered. "Anyway. Sky's your patient. Look him over."

"Okay," Wild blew out a breath, approaching Sky and kneeling beside him. "So he's unconscious, that's my neuro so far."

"Can you arouse him at all?"

Wild poked Sky in the neck. Sky flinched. Wild poked again and Sky giggled. Wild's eyes widened in realization, and a mischievous smile crossed his face.

"Wild, wait--"

Sky started laughing hysterically as his friend tickled him, wiggling and trying to shove him away.

"Get--off of m--Wild you jerk--"

Hyrule chuckled. "Well, we're not taught to tickle our patients, but that works."

[vampjasper]

Hemiverbalflux. (Coined 15/7/2024)

Hemiverbalflux is a label I created because I wanted a specific term that describes my experience. It uses the word hemi (meaning half, same as semi & demi) and combines it with verbalflux. It means:

When your verbality fluctuates in intensity but is always, constantly, within the borders of semiverbal and demiverbal

Struggling with speech but the difficulty, length and frequency fluctuate. Sometimes having major difficulty and being unable to form coherent sentences to sometimes being able to speak well; Sometimes being unable to speak without extreme difficulty for weeks, to being able to speak reliably for a few days

Verbal shutdowns fluctuate in frequency, length & intensity. Sometimes being a few times a month, to being a few times a week, to being every day; Sometimes lasting for a few minutes, to lasting a few hours, to lasting days

Fluctuations can be random or can have causes such as stress

Fluctuations can happen often or over long periods of time

Flag based on these

[Image ID: A flag with 9 equal horizontal stripes. The colours are all desaturated and mirrored, they go from dark pink (edges), to pink, to green, to light green, and to light blue (middle). There is also a small white infinity symbol in the middle of the flag. End ID]

Hemiverbal can also be used on its own as a separate term to mean bordering/being somewhere between semiverbal and demiverbal. I may make a post in the future officially coining the term but I don't plan to do that soon. I also didn't make a flag for just hemiverbal as it's honestly just a little bonus from making hemiverbalflux.

Definitions of demiverbal and semiverbal (that I use) to show what hemiverbalflux fluctuates between.

Demiverbal: ⤵️

Can reliably speak most of the day for most days of the week

Verbal shutdowns happen anywhere from a few times a week to a few times a month, possibly for no apparent reason

May experience some level of difficulty with mouth words, anywhere between slight difficulty only a little of the time to half the time

Semiverbal: ⤵️

Only being able to speak in specific circumstances OR showing moderate to extreme difficulty with speaking most/all of the time

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

[naamahdarling]

Have another concerning issue and now we NEED an electrician to come check on things.

I don't even have a credit card. We don't own the house so no loans, and assistance is not available through charitable orgs, and it is dad's second house technically, so he isn't able to access aid either. I live on under $1500 a month. There is no room for this.

I can maybe pay for a service call to come evaluate what is wrong. That's about it.

I'm so tired of this forced poverty shit. I can't save for anything. I'm not supposed to take charity even though there's no living on what I get and they know it. I can't get fucking married. But like a goddamn feral cat I also can't live without the trash they throw me.

If I die, dump half my corpse in front of the Social Security office and half in front of the SNAP office.

[n1et]

I just got a cane and oh my god, my entire body is shaking. It's as if I was standing up for all my life and just sat down. Life changing decision to just go and get one, and it only costed 34 PLN, I could get like a single burger with no sides or drink for that. Solid oak, admittedly about 3cm too long but I'm gonna trim it in a sec.

And I never even had big issues with my legs, just a slight left hip joint problem, nothing painful, 99% of the time I didn't notice it. But I guess it was just overworked and stiff all this time? Even my tension headaches got slightly better.

If you feel like you have ANY issues with your legs just get a cane, or even go to a medical store and try it out for 10 minutes, you don't even have to buy it at first. The investment is so low and the difference is potentially massive.

I can't believe I waited over 4 years to do this.

[your-local-squirrel]

What do you wish your caretakers knew/understood about you?

Sincerely, someone who wants to do right by the individuals under my care (working at a long-term care facility for people with developmental disabilities).