Disability workers and holiday breaks

There are a number of industries that we expect to keep going over the holiday breaks. If your friend is a doctor, a nurse, a firefighter or a member of the police force, you wouldn’t be surprised if they told you they were working over Christmas or Easter.

But I think sometimes the disability sector gets forgotten when it comes to being a group of essential workers. One of my former workers once told me that one of her friends asked her what she was doing over the Easter long weekend. She told them that she would be working. They said, “but it’s the Easter break!” She responded, “yeah, and my clients don’t stop needing me over the Easter break.”

Sometimes I get cheeky when my organisations call me about holiday care. They ask me if I’ll still be needing and wanting support over the holiday period, and I’ll say, “well, I’ve just checked my calendar, and it looks like I’ll still be disabled at Christmas.”

This is only because I’ve already asked them to stop asking me, and to put it into my case notes that I’ll let them know if I don’t need care over a holiday period, but that my default is that I will always need care, rain or shine, holiday or not.

Because my disability doesn’t know when it’s a holiday. My disability isn’t going to fade away, just because it’s a holiday and it would be convenient for everyone if I were more able-bodied.

When someone starts working in the disability sector, they often know that they’ll be giving up some of their holidays. They know that they’ll be helping people who will need care every day of the year. They choose not to take those days off, because they know that we can never take a day off from our disability.

I deeply appreciate my workers. I still need to have medication, have breakfast, get dressed and get foot care, even on Christmas day, and there’s no Christmas miracle that lets me do that myself.

I am so deeply thankful that there are workers willing to put their own holiday on hold to come and help me get ready for mine. They are champions, and I am so thankful.

Bless.