I’ve worked at Southern Housing for 19 years and for 11 of these years I’ve also been a carer to my 22-year-old daughter. She is both bed and wheelchair bound due to a condition called hypermobility Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), a hereditary connective tissue disorder that I also have.
I’ve always been the strong one at home. The one who keeps everything organised, the one who does the chasing and fighting with medical teams for my daughter and so on. I’d never taken a second thought for my own health or wellbeing.
hEDS comes with a number of issues but the main symptoms are joint dislocations and pain. Another issue of the condition is how it affects you during hormone change. I’d always been able to hide my symptoms but when I reached my 50s, my hips, knees and ankles became unstable causing me to have frequent falls or struggle to get out of a chair.
Declaring you have a disability is hard but starts with admitting it to yourself
The first time I told someone I needed walking aids I burst into tears, but even then, I refused to use them at work. Instead, I would walk close to walls and furniture hoping they’d save me from a fall.
This changed on an unexpectedly long commute one day. On the occasion, several traffic diversions caused my journey to take two hours! As I got out of the car, I couldn’t walk due to the pain and stiffness. I reached back into the car and grabbed my crutches and slowly walked into the office…
I felt so self-conscious as someone held open the door for me. People had held a door open for me before but on this day, I wasn’t just a colleague but a disabled colleague.
Then came the question I had dreaded “what have you done? I hadn’t done anything except drive to work. I had no cast or obvious injury; I was just in pain and unsteady on my feet.
That was 18 months ago now and in the months that followed I learnt so much about me, my team and Southern Housing. The judging, the convincing others I could still do my job and every other situation I imagined didn’t happen. Instead...
I was supported and asked by my colleagues how they could help
I've learnt:
- Having a disability does not affect my ability to work hard and do my job well
- I’m still Debbie, WH Compliance Manager, I’m also now Co-Chair of the Diverse Ability Network Group where members support each other and look to create change to assist everyone to be comfortable in their roles.
- I changed my status on our internal systems to ‘disabled’ – previously I’d always ticked the ‘no disability’ fearing that I’d lose my job
- Having a disability or other medical condition is not the end of a career
- Southern Housing has ways of supporting you to continue your role with a health condition. There is the Reasonable Adjustments policy, H&S Personal Risk Assessment and the Network Groups.
The Diverse Ability Network Group has been amazing. We’ve already looked at parking at our offices, better access to toilets, Fire Evacuation Policies, Access to Work.
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