Is disability equipment too expensive? - Living Positively...
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most equipment used to be free, and up to date until DLA was widely claimed.
I feel the equipment I use is expensive, however I do understand why, as it is specialist equipment and has alot of expertise and engineering go into the design.
I get fustrated at having to resort to funding some of the things I need, for example I buy my own specialist footwear, as I no longer get them provided by the NHS, and I've funded my own made to measure leg gaiters, as the ones I was provided didn't meet my needs.
I am fortunate that I am in the position to be able to do this some of the time, but it does concern me that people have to and others may not be able to fund thier own and end up going without adequate equipment that meets thier needs.
I find it frustrating and unfair that anything designed to be for a child with special needs is automatically more than twice the cost. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I find what I need on a specialist site and then find the same thing on a 'normal' kids site for half the price but more often than not I just end up paying through the nose.
I find that Tom's OT and physio just sometimes see getting equipment for Tom as a box-ticking exercise and it often ends up with him having what they think he should have, what is standard and cheap for them to purchase, not what he actually needs or likes using. Once you have a bit of kit from the NHS though, they won't change it if it doesn't suit. We've had a Rifton Pacer walker for Tom for over a year, just sitting in the playroom. He hates it, and either won't use it or if he does allow me to put him in it, he flomps over, sinks into all the supports and 'walks' leaning right forward with his legs right out behind him. His physio says maybe its cos Tom doesn't want to walk... Yeah right. I spend my life walking with him, holding him under the armpits so he can chase after his sisters. Until my back screams with pain so badly I have to wear a TENS machine to manage to function.
We've spent SO much money on specialist stuff - accessible toys, walkers, chairs, scooterboard, communication stuff, iPad apps, swing seats, trike, massage stuff, conductive education stuff, plates and cups. I bought some cutlery - one angled spoon and one set of junior caring cutlery and it came to over £50. I have never spent more than £10 on a set of standard cutlery for the girls. It's hard explaining to the girls that this stuff isn't 'presents' for Tom, just stuff he needs. It's a costly business to have a child who needs specialist equipment!
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