Waking up to disability

The Paralympics show sport has woken up to disability, but not the politicians http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/21/paralympics-sport-disability-politicians

This is the headline of one of the guardian’s. The article itself makes some very good points but really the biggest and most obvious one for me is that he has completely missed that people suffering with typical/ traditional mental illnesess that are undoubtedly disabled are not represented at all by the Paralympics and never have been. In fact after the scandal in 2000 where Spain’s basket ball team was made up with some non disabled athletes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2umhVpCKe4) entries from

Intellectual Disability: Athletes with a significant impairment in intellectual functioning and associated limitations in adaptive behaviour (currently suspended.)

Disabled World - The Paralympic Games are multi-sport disability events for athletes with physical mental and sensorial disabilities: http://www.disabled-world.com/sports/paralympics/#ixzz1wGLwBhjg

Have been suspended, and even the special Olympics only includes those with intellectual difficulties (http://www.specialolympics.org/mission.aspx )

It seems that when it comes to positive portrayals/ celebrations of those with mental illness the only ones that get a look in are people with intellectual difficulties (including dementia, Alzheimer’s etc.)...what about the rest of us, we’re disabled too aren’t we?

The definition given by the uk direct gov is:

The definition of ‘disability’ under the Equality Act 2010

In the Act, a person has a disability if:

• they have a physical or mental impairment
• the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to perform normal day-to-day activities

For the purposes of the Act, these words have the following meanings:

• 'substantial' means more than minor or trivial
• 'long-term' means that the effect of the impairment has lasted or is likely to last for at least twelve months (there are special rules covering recurring or fluctuating conditions)
• 'normal day-to-day activities' include everyday things like eating, washing, walking and going shopping

And yes given this description we are, however it seems that people are not celebrating the achievements of those with mental illness. So much of the time people talk about the disabled and yet they are not including those with mental illness at all. The fact is that this man did not even seem to know that those with mental illness or intellectual difficulties were not in the Paralympics or at the very least he did not put any significance to it. It is a shame really since the main bulk of this piece was not about the Paralympics at all and his points are good however it is an example of how certain facts have slipped from peoples minds. I would go so far as to say that it’s being almost universally ignored except that I feel very much that I am splitting hairs he was talking about the disabled however his choice of example really leaves me cold.

In so many ways good positive portrayals of people with mental illness are not happening and this is having a very negative effect on the amount of time people are spending thinking about mental illness. And I don’t mean having negative attitudes but just thinking in general. Autism spectrum, intellectual difficulties and physical difficulties have a lot more time spent on them.

The fact is that I see the Paralympics as another shining example of the widening gap in peoples attitudes to those who are mentally ill versus those who are physically disadvantaged or have intellectual disadvantages (which includes autism spectrum). This is not say that it is not an amazing thing to celebrate these peoples ability to get on with their lives, merely that I feel it has in fact not woken up to disability at all but has fallen very much in line with government attitudes and forgotten all about us. Sadly if you believe the lack of content in the news/ media you would be forgiven for thinking that the mentally ill have nothing to celebrate.

Well I would disagree and so would many of the celebrities who are now opening up over their personal struggles however it doesn’t seem to have the same impact as winning a gold medal at the Olympics. In many ways it seems picky to say that the mental health problems that they have overcome are swept under the carpet. They are not celebrated but pitied and though there may be much pity going around when someone becomes physically disabled you only have to watch the Paralympics to see the celebration of their achievements, their disability and the pity it first brings forth is completely gone, it is their achievements, their will power, the determination, there excellence that is celebrated. For those of us with mental illness there is no such arena for this and it is about time there was.

I guess many would say that they can compete and win at the Olympics and yes the can and no doubt do too. You only have to read the news to know of celebrities talking about their struggles but still this is just one voice, every time it is just the one voice talking to the world, and that is not a celebration, it’s not a big all out lots of spectators, lots of parties and slapping on the backs, it’s not talking and preparing for it for years, it’s not lots of money being invested in facilities, it’s a small piece that soon gets forgotten.

There is a big difference between what is happening for those with physical, or intellectual disabilities and those who have mental illnesses and sadly even those writing about physical disabilities are not seeing how they are ignoring what is happening, adding only small adjuncts into their pieces. The world at large really seems to not have woken up at all, that it is doing better than the government is fantastic but really there is more to be done. A lot, lot, more.