Disability

Hello my name is Tim Phillips. I was born in in Birmingham and lived here all my life. I am a power paraplegic and use a wheelchair. I've since gone on to become a qualified social worker. I play sports at a high level, including table tennis, representing GB.

I think in respect to healthcare workers, I think it's about them trying to find out from from the person themselves as far as they can, what, what care needs, you know, what are the nuances of their daily care that are important to them. On occasions I have encountered issues where, where people have felt very, very isolated, being left in a corridor where it can be quite busy, with lots of fear of people walking backwards and forwards and beds being pushed about in front of a wheelchair, which, which, again, whilst porters and and medical staff try to avoid a person sitting in a wheelchair, in a corridor or in a waiting area.

I think a basic top tip would be to find out about that person's care needs, whether that be from involve professionals in their care, any informal carers and or family, but also the central tip is to ask the individual themselves. Thank you for listening to me today.

Hi, I'm Mike. I'm an outpatient coordinator in the liver department. My job is to look after the new referrals that come into the Trust for people with liver and pancreatic cancer.

I've worked at the Trust for 17 years in the same job. I'm married, my wife works at the Trust as well at Heartlands Hospital. She's been a nurse for 20 years. I have three children, all daughters, which is not the best formula. I joined the army when I was 18. I'd actually passed my marksman's badge when they discovered I'd got this disability with my eyes called Stargardt's Disease, which I didn't know a lot about at the time - and for quite a long time afterwards, I didn't know a lot about. It wasn't until I was probably my 30s when that somebody actually sat down and explained it to me.

My disability affects me sort of from the moment I get up in the morning, I have to sort my medication out, make sure that I'm wearing clothes that match, worry about when I get to the bus stop to make sure I catch the right bus or actually even stop a bus because I've been known to stop lorries in the past.

When I get to work, it's more comfortable at work because I have equipment that the Trust have helped me to get via access to work that enables me to do my job still. Yeah, so it's actually more comfortable at work than when at home.

My proudest moment would be last year I played for England, playing golf in an international tournament. I played golf for most of my life, but as my impairment got worse, I stopped playing. So last year was the first year playing back and managed to play for the England team.

My name is Michael Tomlinson. This is George, my guide dog. Let's talk about disability at UHB.