Originally posted by mthomson
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I've been pretty lucky in that I've been living in my own place for the most part for 35 years. I've moved a few times, and even recently shared a home with one of my CNA's and her girlfriend for three years, and now I'm back living in my own place again because they wanted to move out of state. Over the years I also got a lot of help from my family, primarily my dad but he's now 86 and can't do much for me anymore. I'm 50 myself and I don't know how much longer I can live like this.
Other than the first few years I was injured I have been privately hiring people the whole time and have been relatively lucky but since moving out of the house I was sharing with one of my CNAs my insurance company decided they wanted me to use an agency. Big surprise it hasn't gone very well. They had to fire the first agency after a few weeks because they were unable to consistently cover the hours. This second one has done somewhat better but they are running into the same problem at times. And with both of these agencies there's been a big language barrier issue. It seems like the large majority of agency workers here in Florida are Hispanic and don't speak English very well. It makes it very difficult to communicate with them, even if you utilize your phone as a translator. My caseworker keeps telling me to be patient and things will get better but I'm not very confident about that. But I'm giving it a chance for now.
At some point though, whether it's because of the subpar performance of these agencies, or because I simply just can't live alone anymore, I would be thrilled if there were place I could go to, where there were other people with spinal cord injuries or something similar, living together in some kind of facility with a trained staff. There could be activities and outings on occasion. I really think I, and certainly a few others I've met over the years, would really benefit from such a place. Giving up a bit of privacy and a few other things would be a very small price to pay for such a group orientated living experience with other people who share much in common with you.
I think places like this would make a huge difference for some people. If they existed.
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