Opinions & Letters
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We welcome letters and feedback on any of the articles or issues presented in the magazine.
Please send your letters to the Editor, Outlook, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, Private Bag 99941, Newmarket, Auckland. Or email: comms
A comment from a staff member of Guide Dog Services about the difficulties experienced by rural members of the Foundation inspired my choice of research topic for my Masters thesis. Entitled 'You Live Too Far Out', I examined the impact of the health reforms since 1984 on disabled rural women. My own experiences as a rural woman with failing eyesight provided me with an insider perspective when I interviewed six women. Their experiences in the health system were appalling and continue to sadden me.
Interview data showed that a wide gap existed between the intentions and the practical outcome of the health reforms. Health and disability services were reduced or had become non-existent in rural areas. Reading a list of the types of services available in urban New Zealand brought gales of incredulous laughter to the interview process.
Ignorance and assumptions about disabilities had left my participants feeling devalued and marginalised. One woman commented that people made her feel like a piece of worthless dirt. The attitudes of medical professionals, auxiliary medical staff, needs assessors and receptionists came in for particular criticism. None of the participants felt comfortable about complaining, fearing their services would be cut.
Frustration with the failure of support services to encourage disabled people to remain in rural areas was particularly evident. Limited services were grudgingly provided and information was not widely disseminated by service providers to clients. Pre-conceived ideas about rural women had tempered the needs assessment process, often undertaken after many months of waiting. Most of the participants were told they lived too far out. The women felt their inability to access adequate home help and personal care created insurmountable barriers and brought extra stress to pain filled lives.
Rural communities have also changed dramatically since 1984. Little community support is available and the women often found it difficult to ask for help. All had turned to computers to reduce their isolation and joined support groups, set up websites and obtained medical information not provided by their general
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practitioners or specialists. An unexpected finding was the depth of relationships all the women had developed with animals to compensate for their loneliness.
My thesis has offered recommendations aimed at changing attitudes and assumptions about disability, developing realistic rural health policy, increasing the provision of health and disability services to rural communities, acknowledging the difficulties when coping with disability in the rural context, and increasing the dissemination of information by disability service providers to rural New Zealand.
Susan Mellsop - RNZFB member
My Magic Wand
If you become a member of the RNZFB
You might end up with a cane like mine, I could do with two or
three.
One to find the ones I lose. When that happens, it's a pest!
One for using everyday and one for Sunday best.
I don't know how I'd manage without my long white cane
'Cos if I use it properly, it can save a lot of pain.
I can find the obstacles in my path, whether they be great or
small.
I can find the steps both up and down so I don't trip or fall.
Because I have a guide dog, I don't take my cane to town
To find the crossings, curbs and traffic lights so the cars don't run
me down!
But when I'm home it's my best friend and I use it constantly.
That's why I call it my magic wand for the things it does for me.
I park my wand by my back door and when I go outside
I reach for it automatically and it becomes my guide.
It helps me find the clothes line and the letter box and more
The rubbish bin, the garden shed and that's what the cane is for.
But, my cane has other uses in and around the house.
It gets the cobwebs down for me and once it killed a mouse!
It's just ideal for poking up a vacuum cleaner hose
To free whatever's caught up there ... goodness only knows!
If things fall behind the piano or roll under the lounge
settee,
My magic wand soon does the trick and flicks them out for me.
I've heard these words a dozen times "Nana come here quick!
My football's in the orange tree, bring your long white stick!"
Poem (abridged) sent in by
Nola Burgess - RNZFB member