Pull us wheelies this way or that way? What’s it going to be? Well, my guess is that most wheelies agree with me that we make up a unique community, and, as I stated in my post Assisted Living For Us in the ‘Wheelie Politics’ category, we shouldn’t  be lumped in with senior citizens in the care giving agencies that serve our distinct community. But society has to make up its mind.

I have been treated differently than the majority of agencies’ customers, senior citizens, mostly because of the vital nature of my needs and because of my financial concerns. Seemingly, it’s not understood that my safety is greatly threatened without assistance, my humanity is degraded without completing tasks of daily living like grooming, and my vitality is weakened by inadequate food and water to activate my medicine. Similarly, it’s not grasped that I pay out-of-pocket, being too young for governmental entitlements.

But in other ways, we with disabilities and seniors are treated too much alike. The harm in this is especially when this ‘lumping together’ spills over into financial and legal matters. A 40-year-old friend of mine is just now receiving benefits that could have spared him many years of grief, had he known an elder care lawyer would have helpful information for him.