A mental disability is a medical condition usually caused by a brain injury or damage. It negatively affects a person’s thinking; their ability to relate with others and their ability to cope with everyday tasks.

It is characterised by neurological disorders, learning disabilities or mental retardation.

Some of the Challenges which should Raise Our Concern for the Mentally Disabled Include: An inability to make appropriate decisions about matters essential to their own well-being – Cooking, Dressing right for the weather, Unawareness of their environment, Inability to recognise/ protect themselves from dangerous situations…

…A tendency to unleash violence upon themselves, or on those around them; Unusual aggressiveness; A wish to take own’s life…

Disability Living Allowance is a financial aid – a Benefit – paid to disabled people who need help looking after themselves; To those with mobility problems who find it difficult/ impossible to move around; And to those with a terminal illness – Expected to die within the following 6 months.

It is not based on [the] disability but the needs arising from it. Needs involving bodily functions such as bathing, feeding, dressing up…

Getting qualified to recieve this benefit takes a lot of time – applying for forms, filling the forms (There 59 pages of very personal, depressing stuff to fill in), getting the medical assessments, waiting for those results and those of other medical/ physiological/ institutuional… bodies involved in the referral and assessments…

Down syndrome – A genetic condition, resulting from extra genes which restrict physical and intellectual abilities – is one of the causes of learning difficulty.

As affected persons grow older, research has shown that they are more likely to develop Dementia/ Alzheimer’s disease – and at a much younger age.

Learning difficulty/ disability – one of the results of having Down’s syndrome – makes it difficult for those suffering with it to live independent lives; To to achieve basic academic/ vocational success; Nor to find/ keep a job that utilises the individuals full potential.

This, coupled with Dementia when they age, leads to a life of fear and confusion due to memory loss. They become increasingly unable to recognise familiar environments and relationships…

Parkinson’s – A progressive neurological condition, which causes the loss of nerve cells in the brain, so that the brain is unable to produce enough of the chemical called Dopamin.

Without dopamine, you may find that your movements become slower so it takes longer to do things.

With Parkinson’s, the symptoms do get worse over time. But research has shown that those people who get involved and who face up proactively to their condition, have a far better quality of life than those who don’t.

Here are 25 Tips to help you do just that – Engage with your Parkinson’s, Understand it, Study it, Face up proactively to it. So you can have a far better quality of life…

If you don’t like the expression “Confined to a wheelchair”; If you see your wheelchair as an important tool that makes it possible for you to live a full and active life, Then this will surely bring you great cheer!

How would you like a set of wheelchair you can fold into your travelbag? Well, it’s nearly possible to own one now!

As a paraplegic, my wheelchair enables me to live a full and active life. But any wheelchair-user will tell you that trying to get a pair of 25in diameter wheels into a car can be a real pain.

They have to be lifted over one’s lap, a difficult manoeuvre, especially if it’s wet and you are trying to look smart. Not to mention stowing them in aeroplane lockers…