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bjbjD Well, I think the first perception when someone s disabled, people just assume they
re sick, they re ill, and I ve known a number of people with disabilities who are healthier
than most of the friends that I have who are non-disabled. It s certainly a misperception.
Yeah, there are certain people with certain illnesses that could be exposed, more exposed
to illnesses, but by in and of its nature doesn t, I don t know how true that always
bears out. But I think there is this image that if you re disabled, you re sick. I remember
just recently, a friend of mine s dad was, I don t know how old he was, but he had a
stroke and had to use a wheelchair, but he was healthy. But my friend kept saying but
he s in a wheelchair, I said but he s healthy. He said but he s in a wheelchair. As if to
say if he s in a wheelchair, how could you be healthy? The fact that he could make decisions,
that he could do a number of things, I thought he was healthy. But again that perception
is if, you know, it s sort of like the kids, as soon as kids are diagnosed with disabilities
the intense therapies and it s really important for so many kids to walk and to use crutches
or whatever and I ve heard a number of people say the day I got into my wheelchair, I got
a wheelchair, was the best day of my life because I was able to get around. And yet
the perception is, what a loss, you re in a wheelchair. You were walking, and by walking
somehow, even if you re in pain and misery and you can t get from A to B very well, just
the fact that you re, you know, what a fighter. He s walking. Alright he s in pain, but he
s walking, whereas in a wheelchair, you re coasting. It s sort of, again, that loss,
but it s a false value that people in this case had greater mobility rather than less
mobility and much more comfort.
Well, the medical model often times pays the bills and very early in Colorado, when Atlantis
started, Wade and I were activists, not administrators. We didn t know how much a bunch of nines were,
we didn t know payroll from payroll taxes. We were about as amateurish as any two human
beings could be. We weren t the most popular people either because we were advocating for
some major changes within the system. We thought the workshops were inappropriate and at times
exploitative. And we didn t have a lot of friends, so when Atlantis first started, there
was almost no funding. The initial consumers had a little bit of money that went to attendants
but it only covered a very small portion. And we used volunteers, if you can imagine
volunteer attendants, probably for the first year of Atlantis. I remember I used to do
a lot of the Sunday shifts. I d come there about 8:00 and stay until another day and
there were other people that did that as well. And we were tremendously under funded. The
only good funding we had was from HUD. We had section 8 subsidies, but apart from that
people had SSI and a little bit of an allowance, a homecare allowance, which covered a very
minute part of the services they need. So I think it was around 1976, Atlantis, or shortly
thereafter, Atlantis became a home health agency and that was the ticket to get attendant
services. And that was unfortunately the medical model. It was an established program. It was
geared more to older people and geared around acute or short term needs. Atlantis was obviously
a very different model. It wasn t an agency that operated from Monday, Friday from 8-5.
People had needs throughout the day and night, on weekends, holidays. So it changed the traditional
model into something. But in retrospect, the medical model now, in 2005, is a very different
than some of the newer programs, the consumer directed services, in home support services.
But at that time it was a means toward an end. But I think the regulations have changed
to reinforce the medical model but earlier on, a person had great choice in who they
wanted as their attendant. If they didn t want someone, they could let people know.
So it wasn t as some agencies, who have total control over consumers, it was much more consumer
choice, as it still is. hV.p hV.p gdV.p urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags State urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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