Here's a photo of a typical day for Donna. She must put her life at risk just to make a simple trip to the pharmacy or the supermarket. During the summer, when the town is swarming with vacationers and beach goers, there is even more traffic! This situation is an accident waiting to happen, wouldn't you say? However, there is no curb cut on the sidewalk to the left and behind Donna; and the sidewalks are often broken and not passable for wheelchairs. She has no choice but to ride her wheelchair in the road...either that, or stay home isolated and alone her whole life, like so many disabled citizens are forced to do. Or perhaps you feel that people like her should be forced to spend their whole lives in institutional settings? Much more needs to be done to address the transportation needs of people like Donna. Our town, like most, is not fully accessible for wheelchair bound citizens, in spite of the ADA. You can read more about this issue and see more photos like this at our photo web site at flickr

Dentistry for the disabled (continued)

Donna will eventually lose two of her front teeth if we can't find affordable and wheelchair accessible dental care. She has already lost most of her molars. For a brief update on our continuing struggle to get decent dental care for Donna click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lejaz/438191104/

Dentistry for the disabled - cont.

There is a new addition to the story of Donna's struggle to find a private dentist who will accept a Medicaid patient like herself. Unfortunately I have been so busy lately, that I haven't had the time to post it until now. Donna had to have 3 teeth pulled on Jan. 8. Since we could not find a private dentist who would accept Medicaid, we had to pay the full fee($875.00... and this was done in under one hour), or else they would have sent her home to suffer in pain. The worst of it is, she needs root canals and crowns on two of her front teeth, or else she will wind up losing them.

dentistry for the disabled (or the lack of...)

This very special lady was almost in tears yesterday, because the dentist who helped her last summer when she was in terrible pain told us that he NO LONGER accepts Medicaid for payment. He was the only private dentist in our area who would treat Donna. There are no longer any dentists in our area who accept Medicaid, and Donna has a broken molar that needs to be extracted, and a tooth in the front that needs a root canal and crown. I'm sorry, but I feel this is a terrible disgrace. These dentists really should to be ashamed to let her suffer like this. They can easily afford to take one or two medicaid patients. I know the insurance on the two Mercedes' is high, but with the fees that they charge the rest of us, they can somehow manage to scrape by...ha! (compared to most of the people we know they are more than well off!) There is a dental clinic at the hospital that will take Medicaid patients, but Donna received very poor treatment there last summer and is afraid to go back. The people who do the work there are still in training. They are dental residents...NOT licensed dentists. Shouldn't Donna have the right to be treated by a private dentist of her choice? Don't the disabled deserve the same quality of dental care as anyone else?! If you feel that they do, please let us know. (The rest of the story can be found below).

enough is enough

New Jersey Transit's Access Link bus service is destroying people's lives! Not literally, of course, but the service is so horrible much of the time, that many people who need it cannot make use of it. We traveled about 6 miles on the bus yesterday to do some shopping for household goods and necessities at a local shopping mall. We boarded the bus to come home at 6:00PM. We didn't get home until 8:00PM. We were on the bus for TWO HOURS, just to get home from a local shopping mall. This is beyond unacceptable! After picking us up the bus travelled about 25 or 30 miles in the opposite direction of our destination to take another passenger home. Then they had to come back another 30 miles to bring us home. On top of this the driver made several wrong turns, and in spite of having global positioning software on the bus she managed to get lost! If this were a very infrequent occurrence, I would not be writing this. Unfortunately, this happens all too frequently. Donna is now afraid to use the Access Link bus for fear that this will happen again. What is she supposed to do...stay at home for the rest of her life? Unfortunately, many of the disabled do just that, at least for the overwhelming majority of the time. I have nothing more to add tonight. I'll write more later. I'm too angry and frustrated about this to think clearly about what needs to be done. If you are concerned about the lives of people like Donna, please have a look at the post, "Time to Fight!" on this same subject.

a most dangerous game

Dear friends,
A horrible situation exists for people like Donna who are disabled and living on their own. Please take the time to view this photo on our Flickr site. Click here. Thank-you.

Time to fight!

They did it again! Yesterday we booked a trip on Access Link to go food shopping. After we finished up our shopping, we were ready and waiting for our bus at 6:00PM as scheduled...we arrived home at 8:10PM. The supermarket is 6 miles from our home. We had to wait an hour and 10 minutes for the bus to arrive, and then the bus ride home took an additional hour and five minutes. Once again...the supermarket is only 6 miles from our home. If I was not on board the bus to give directions to the driver, we would have arrived home MUCH later. She had NO IDEA where she was going, and obviously didn't know how to read a map. This is beyond outrageous. Donna was an hour and a half late for her evening seizure medications. What if she had a seizure on the bus? Her home health aide could not wait for over an hour and a half, so she went home before we arrived, and Donna missed her dinner. If I was not there with her she would have had no one to get her ready for bed or take her to the bathroom. This is totally unacceptable, and we will have to fight. If I had this on tape and Donna had had a seizure on the bus, we would sue!!! If someone could lend us a digital camcorder, I would like to record a video of our trips on Access Link, because I plan on contacting the TV network news, our local congressman, and the local newspaper. This is no way to treat our most vulnerable citizens. Would anyone do this to a child coming home from school? Of course not. The parents would have a fit if their child had to wait for 1 1/4 hours for their bus to arrive and another hour or more to go 6 miles! But apparently some people think this is an acceptable way to treat the disabled. If you or anyone you know has had similar experiences with Access Link (and I know for a fact that they are fairly COMMON), please contact us. It is very important that we band together and fight this appalling service. This kind of thing has happend to us far too often, and it has got to stop!