Just because a person become unable to work as in hold down gainful employment due to disability or disabilities doesn't mean they stop being an asset to family and society. I worked before disability on the average of 54 hour weeks and I was a full time medical caregiver at home. Actually I was caregiver to two persons and working. Our daughter was laid up for a few months from a car wreck. She was the caregiver when I was working.
Finally after about a year of increasing functional issues one night my body and brain said enough. Some life long neurological issues I had been able to function with while working had reached a point where I couldn't. I didn't see any point in getting someone killed tryi any longer.
I'm still a caregiver I have about as much knowledge & skills as a LPN. Because of than my wife can live at home. When dad a couple years ago was terminal with cancer I became nurse because I was the family member who knew what to do and could handle it mentally. Mom is up in years and yes I'm going to care for her as well.
Yes I've seen severely disabled persons work. I have a cousin that holds a government job. She has to have a full time assistant {government paid employee} to care for her needs and assist her at work. You want to talk about cost?
Some disabilities are visible and obvious some are not. Mine as of yet doesn't have a medical name because it is several overlapping conditions. It involves or started in the Inner Ears they know that much and I'm also one eye functional from birth. But the seizures that started happening and my loss of ability to concentrate and tolerate noises etc is what finally forced me to retire.
I look as healthy as a horse. My concentration ability on a lot of days is low. When that hit me so did PTSD from a bunch of events that finally brought me to the point. The PTSD I got over the rest I didn't.
For two days after my last night at work all I could do was answer yes and no questions. Would you want a Boiler Operator in that condition? Certain noises, certain visual stimulation set my condition off. Add to that my feet and legs are arthritic from 56 years of walking off balance. I wear corrective shoes but my walking especially on concrete is limited. Arches fell and I'm also Club footed both feet. The only visible hint of disability is a cane I use for balance and to lift myself back up from the floor if I have to kneel down to pick something up.
For 28 years my wife and I have done as much as we can for ourselves. She was a health care worker when she went quad. A 4'10" 85 lb woman lifting patients in and out of bed. Her body due to that and likely Polio at some point in her childhood said enough is enough. She was 35 when it hit her and in about an hour she walked no more.
But hey if she could get up and walk then by golly she darn well would. Now you want to do some basic math? When I retired 18 years ago I worked in a nursing home. Rooms were well over $100 plus a day just room and board.
Let's do some figuring here. Lets take a basic figure of $125 a day times one year. That equals out to $45,625 a year just for room not counting meds etc. Now lets multiply that yearly figure by 28 years and we get 1,227,528. OK now let's take a SSDI payment averaged out $500 a month times 28 that comes to $168,000 total disability payments my wife has likely drawn in 28 years. BTW medically she qualifies for a nursing home. Which was cheaper? 28 years and her check is now $620 a month. I draw a whopping $850. I only draw $850 because my last two years working I took every minute of overtime I could get.
You read about the abuses and yes I know there are gamers out there. Although the few persons I do know who are on disability besides my wife and I all had to hire a lawyer and wait two plus years. My wife was even turned down first time. A lot of people confuse SSDI with SSI as well. We do not draw SSI.
Working in a nursing home I saw something many don't see. Parents that could still live at home with some assistance placed i nursing homes because the kids they brought into the world turned out to be "I refuse to help my family" adults. Granted some persons due to things like Dementia and Alzheimer's must be placed in secure facilities for safety. Family would come in for their once a year visit to their parent. They were usually the ones wjhho also bitched the loudest about the care being given.
Hey snipe! Hope you’re doing well, buddy.
Thanks for sharing, snipe.
I have some of your same issues...PTSD from violent and abusive childhood and marriage....undiagnosed mental and physical health issues that finally caught up with me and led to a complete collapse. Everyone’s situation is different and I would still like to try to find something to do from home. Have been looking for awhile now.
Have an Australian friend that is a very good 3D artist and makes and sells his characters online...does pretty well for himself and now no longer needs to work at an outside job. But I’ve no such talent and am still wondering what it is I could do. Did copy editing and proofreading for awhile but there wasn’t much work or money in it. Then I had a business helping people with no healthcare or prescription drug coverage, like myself before disability, find medication they could afford. That was really nice but then in 2010 Google and the Feds cracked down and that came to a halt.
Have not found anything since. Most things take money to get started and I have no extra. I’ve thought about some sort of neighborhood errand or delivery service but my vehicle is not in good enough shape to be driving all the time, and truthfully, neither am I. Believe me, I have thought and thought and come up with nothing. So I have given it up in prayer to the Lord and asked Him to lead me.
Any ideas are welcome from all.