Independent living what does it mean

A housing and community arrangement that maximizes independence and self-determination. We are seeing training programs migrate into this' functional' space, not only for older adults, but for others as well, for an older adult trying to maintain independent living , they need function-specific training.

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Forgot your password? Retrieve it. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate image within your search results please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Term » Definition. Word in Definition. Freebase 0. National Library of Medicine 0. Alex US English. David US English. Mark US English. Daniel British. Independent Living does not mean that we want to do everything by ourselves and do not need anybody or that we want to live in isolation.

Independent Living means that we demand the same choices and control in our every-day lives that our non-disabled brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends take for granted. We want to grow up in our families, go to the neighborhood school, use the same bus as our neighbors, work in jobs that are in line with our education and interests, and start families of our own.

Since we are the best experts on our needs, we need to show the solutions we want, need to be in charge of our lives, think and speak for ourselves - just as everybody else. To this end we must support and learn from each other, organize ourselves and work for political changes that lead to the legal protection of our human and civil rights.

As long as we regard our disabilities as tragedies, we will be pitied. As long as we feel ashamed of who we are, our lives will be regarded as useless.

Until one day I realized, normality was accepting myself for what I was. Once I broke out of that I found things so much easier. I've learned how to feel comfortable around people. The biggest obstacle for me was my attitude. For a while I thought I'd never be independent the way I wanted to be. Then I realized that everybody relies on somebody for something.

You have to take the attitude that given the right situation, the right approach, you can function like everybody else. That's a start towards other things.

Doreen Demas In I moved out of my parents house, and into my own rental accommodation. Before making the move, the first and most important obstacle I had to surmount was myself. I needed to have the self-confidence that I could live more independently than in a nursing home.

This transformation occurred in an interesting way. I gained a lot of support from the peer counseling project. Project staff believed I could move into a more Independent Living situation even when I did not. That was important. Looking back, I view that project as a catalyst towards my becoming more independent.

As far as other obstacles I had to surmount, they tended to be skills I had not developed. On the job I quickly gained knowledge about screening and interview techniques, scheduling attendants and general attendant management. Some people may encounter funding an attendant a problem.

I did not. I simply approached my social assistance worker and explained my personal care needs, the amount of time I required assistance, and the projected total cost. Within a couple of weeks the funding was approved. Connie Oxelgren The biggest obstacle was the realization that my life circumstances changed all of a sudden to being a person with a disability. I made an effort to learn the system. What made me able to live an independent lifestyle in the community was that I treated my disability as a job.

I think at this point in time the major obstacles to greater independence or any improvement in my lifestyle are basically financial. Glenn Cave. There needs to be self-help counseling right away for a newly disabled person. Secondly there needs to be adequate services for someone who has just become disabled: homemaker care, transportation, financial support, etc. I know for myself, I made my disability worse by continuing to work but there was no alternative.

Adequate services in the proper amounts have to be conveniently available. It is already enough to deal with a disability and then to have to deal with the complicated and terribly disorganized service delivery system is to add insult to injury that is already deep enough. Services all should be under the individual's own control and designed to facilitate independence. For example, it is insane for homemakers to be allowed only to make meals and change beds.

They should be allowed to file papers, help with transportation, do all those things that are necessary for a person to be productive. The disabled person should be in control. There is absolutely no reason why a disabled person shouldn't be choosing their own worker. All the necessary supports should be available, then disabled people could go out into the community and succeed or fail on their own merits. Jill Weiss The availability of appropriate housing and support services are tied closely together.

In Edmonton a small number of housing facilities for disabled persons have homemaker and personal care services associated with them. This has restricted the range of housing options available to us. Universally available support services would allow us the opportunity to choose housing on the same basis as families without a non-disabled member.

Michael Huck I think government should just give disabled persons who need attendants a cheque. Let them hire and fire and train their own attendants. I think that this would make a big difference to any person who needs any kind of personal assistance. I think disabled people would be able to move out of institutions a lot quicker and wouldn't have to stay in them as long if they could get good personal assistance with people they could rely on.

I think they should be the ones to train them because they are the experts. I think we should be like England where there are a lot more in-home services. They have found that the seniors and the disabled can stay home a lot more if there is an appropriate amount of services. I hate to see people going to nursing homes or institutions that could stay out another 10 or 15 years. Each city or small town has to have appropriate amount of services.

I think consumers have to have direct input into them and have control. Having the appropriate services will lead to a disabled person having a much better life and doing other things like getting a job or volunteering at a job or whatever. I think the government should recognize Independent Living as a right and the public should recognize it as a right. There should be more publicity aimed at that. I think that now people see it as a privilege.

With respect to community changes I have a complaint to make about the women's movement and women's services that are offered. I find that they're not offered to disabled women, mainly because of inaccessibility.

I would like to use women's services because as a feminist, I feel more comfortable with the women who are providing these services. I call and get frustrated because they're inaccessible. We need to remember disabled women are mothers and need access to child care services. They often can't get their kids into a nursery school because it has two or three steps.

These services are part and parcel of the world we live in but nobody ever thinks that a disabled woman might need an accessible child care center or something like that. I think we have to think more broadly in terms of services for disabled people.

Every service, that any person would use, should be accessible to us. Pat Israel Community needs to change its perspective and to accept that support services are a right not a charity. Government must provide funds to the disabled so they can achieve the change in perspective.

Government must also make its own services accessible to all. Henry Vlug They're going to have to smarten up!

Two things are going to have to happen. Firstly, they're going to have to listen, to really listen to what disabled people have to say. Secondly, they have to recognize that when you control your life and make your decisions, you also incorporate a risk and that is part of life.

No matter how disabled a person is, they choose to take a certain risk because it gives them certain freedoms. It is their choice and it is not anybody else's right to interfere with that choice. Very often a risk is taken again, for freedom, trading one thing off for the other. That has to be recognized by the community. That it is a disabled person's right. Elizabeth Semkiw If I were building an ideal support service system, I think I would develop a program that was very much individualized.

Where the individual would come in and they would tell you exactly what their needs were. If they said ok, I need x amount of nursing services or personal assistance services, I need x amount for homemaking, then that need would be assessed and if it was justifiable, I think you always have to be accountable then have the monies flow directly to the individual. I'm a firm believer that the individual knows best what their needs are and the best way how to meet them.

I think it best if the dollars went directly to the person and they themselves were able to go out and purchase their own services. Three things I think would happen, 1. I think the thing would be more cost effective, 2. You'd soon see a lot of these service providers falling into line.

No longer would they be just developing services because the government gives them the bucks. Either they'd be meeting people's needs or they wouldn't be in business. I think the concept of the dollars following the individual is a really good one. Rick Laird. Society has to be changed. You can't do it yourself. There is no way.

There is no way out except with everyone else. Unless you are really rich and you have a lot of money. The way to make things better for oneself as an individual is to pull and struggle with other disabled persons. You have to keep fighting like a tiger. Jill Weiss I think my one recommendation is to be extremely assertive, sometimes aggressive, because if a social worker says to you that you can't have something and you know you need it, go above that worker's head, go to the top, go to the media.

Use what's out there to get what you need. Feel that you're an equal person to everyone else. Peer support is important. I think in terms of peer support, I can tell a young disabled person a lot of things that no non-disabled social worker could tell them.

They might listen to me a lot more and maybe learn things that they would never know. I said, "well, why don't you get satin sheets? You can actually turn yourself on a bed much easier and much quicker.

Now, no nurse, no rehab worker had ever told her this and I think they had never thought of it. There are so many little things like this.

Pat Israel Make the best of what is available now. It isn't enough but it's there. But don't be satisfied with what is available. Fight for what we are entitled to.