Vlog | How my Personal Assistant (carer) supports and enables me [CC]
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2024
- This is the video I wanted to make for a while and I know it’s been much requested by those who check out my channel.
Diane, my carer or PA (Personal Assistant) as I refer to her as. I filmed this vlog over the course of three days to give a better idea of the wide range of ways in which Diane supports and enables me to live my life.
I hope you find this vlog insightful and it gives you an idea of the role that PAs play in supporting those with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
In total honesty I feel that PAs and carers are under recognised for the vital work that they do every single day for so many people around the world. In the UK I find it hard to think that people like Diane only get paid minimum wage when there are people who working on a supermarket checkout earning more.
I did feel quite vulnerable filming this but I feel that it’s important to show the reality of life especially the reality of living with disabilities and chronic health problems and how it affects me and the support that I need to assist and enable me to live out my life.
Thank you for watching this video and if you would like to keep up to date with future videos it would be lovely to see you as a new subscriber to my channel.
If you have any questions either for me or Diane please leave them in the comments below. Also if you want to know more about some of the aids I use featured in this video again please leave a comment below.
#disability
thank you so much for sharing this. i am the same age as you and have had a nightmare with carer agencies but thankfully finally got social services to fund a PA! this has been a really helpful insight to what support from a good PA can look like. I know how vulnerable it can feel to be open publicly about the realities of living with health conditions and needing support to maintain a good quality of life so I really appreciate you making this video and sharing it with us. This has helped me more than I feel I can put into words. I feel very hopeful now about what life can look like once my PA starts working with me
Hi there, I’m so glad this video was helpful to you and has given you hope for hopefully a better life once your PA starts and you start to build up that professional relationship with your PA. Diane who’s in this video has been with me over 3 years now, almost 4 probably (!) and we get on so so well and we have a good routine going and she’s very attuned to my needs and she just loves her job. It will be hard at first for both you and your PA but the great thing about PAs is you have someone who is supporting you constantly so you see each other regularly so you have that time to establish a routine and relationship as opposed to agency carers. There’s such a shortage of PAs; I’m really struggling to find extra PAs to join my team so I’m using agency carers to fill the gaps so I know the difference in care. I made this video more to highlight and raise awareness of just the variety in what a PA can do to support someone and enable them to live out their life as well as the relationship that you build up with your PA. I really appreciate your comment it was lovely to read and all the best, Naomi
Thank you, Naomi. I'm considering a career change and am considering becoming a PA. Thank you so much for your honesty and opening up. Bright blessings.
That’s great! I’m glad you loved my video and you’re considering becoming a PA it really is such a rewarding and fun job. My PAs love coming to work and we have a great working relationship. There’s also such a shortage of PAs; I’ve been desperately looking for more PAs for a long time but there’s just so few people out there. I’m sure you’ll be an asset to the profession!
Thanks for sharing this Naomi. I appreciate that it took a lot for you to share this. I am currently awaiting my pip decision so this was useful to help me think what I could spend the money on to make my life easier.
Hi Sarah, thank your comment, what you've written is such appreciated. I really hope you do get your PIP and I'm happy to offer any advice or support if you wish. My email is hello@agirlcallednaomi.com if you wish to contact me. PIP defiantly helps to cover the extra costs as being disabled/chronically ill does get quite expensive and before I got my care package it helped me to pay for care and now it helps me pay for my care contribution payment along with everything else.
@@AGirlCalledNaomi I heard this week I got my pip for 3 years at higher rate mobility and higher rate daily living. I was so overwhelmed as I'd heard such horror stories of people having to fight for a year or two to get anything. Now I just need to think best how to spend it. As I'm self employed I think for the moment I'm going to use it so I can allow myself hours / days off.
@@sarahgibbons9737 Hi Sarah, I'm really glad that you've been awarded PIP it really does help to cover the extra costs of having a chronic illness/disability and it's there for people to use however they wish in whatever way will help and support their needs best as everyone is unique even two people with the same diagnosis. I'm also glad that you didn't incur the difficulties a lot of people do face to get PIP especially when you have lesser understood diagnosis' like M.E/CFS.
It's lovely to see Diane after hearing about her and how she's made such an improvement to your quality of life x
I’ll be sure to let Diane know :) when editing I felt quite vulnerable showing that I need help with things like getting a bath but I wanted to help raise awareness of how important people like Diane are. PA’s and carers and unpaid carers too are not recognised for the wonderful work they do to change and enable people’s lives. I definitely think both paid and unpaid carers deserve to earn more for what they do. I find it Absurd that there’s people on a supermarket checkout earning more especially when it comes to carers allowance which when working out their hourly rate income is less than minimum wage! I know this video was much requested and even chased up asking me when I would be sharing it so I pushed myself to film, edit, upload and add subtitles to get it shared on time so I’m now having a quiet weekend as it was a massive challenge to do all that. I also have another video in the making to share how challenging it is to be a UA-camr with M.E and other illnesses just so people understand that I love my channel but equally it is so hard especially when people are chasing me up asking when I’ll be sharing certain videos.
Thank you for sharing this vlog Naomi. It is very important to raise awareness of ME/CFS and to show the care people who are severely affected require to manage daily activities of living. I can imagine how vulnerable you may have felt sharing this on UA-cam, however, please know you've done remarkably well and have truly shown the reality of ME/CFS - Emma
Hi Emma. Thank you so much for your comment, what you’ve written means a lot as when I was editing I did feel so vulnerable seeing things like needing support to get a bath etc. However this is the reality of what having severe M.E is like and I'm glad that you feel that it's helped raise a little bi of awareness into how M.E can affect people like myself.
I kept this video focused on how Diane supports and enables me, so when we went out for a coffee what I didn't show is how that trip out left me feeling utterly crashed that evening.
I also like in this video how the relationship I have with Diane shines through like how Diane jokes about how I always over scrub my face or our conversation in the car about liking egg mayo.
When you spend so much time with someone like a PA it’s so important that there’s a positive professional working relationship and Diane and I get on so well and can have a laugh but at the same time there’s a seriousness such as when I become unwell and I need Diane to step in and take over.
Sorry to jump on two years late but thanks so much for this video. Do you get your PA funded but social care? I'm 26 with chronic illnesses and always up for a chat if you want ☺️