The Ordinariness of Impairment: Inspiring Stories About Children With Special Needs

By Janet O'Keefe, Raymond Aaron and Robert Ashton

The Ordinariness of Impairment is a book that dives into the current system, focusing on the reality of struggling with local authorities. But along the way, author Janet O’Keefe creates a sense of purpose, putting together action items for parents. Instead of focusing on what parents cannot do, she inspires parents with stories of success.

In addition, there are action points that can help parents know where to go next, especially when they are feeling overwhelmed. Her point of view isn’t the clinical perspective of a professional therapist, but also comes from the heart of a parent of a child with his own unique needs. No matter what stage your child is at, there is something to inspire you to help your child grow and reach their potential.
If you have a child with special needs, and you are feeling frustrated with the system, here is a book that not only inspires, but provides practical tips to assist you in understanding and dealing with your local authority.

This book inspires, giving a sense of hope for those who worry their child might not reach their potential. As Mrs O’Keefe makes clear, your child can reach their potential and there is hope in the darkest days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781772771046

Book preview

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Chapter 1

Baptism of Fire

The Birth of a Therapist

I knew that I wanted to become a speech and language therapist from about the age of 13. The reason I was so young was because my uncle was Deaf but people did not recognize or realize that when he was at school. So he was called ‘thick’ by his classmates and developed minimal literacy and achieved no qualifications. He had the capacity for speech, although it was not as clear as he would have liked, and he found it difficult to hear in noisy environments. As a result, he worked nights as a fishmonger in the London markets, as it was quieter. He also just had one friend who he would socialize with and go for a pint with once a week. He lived with my nana, close to where we lived in London, and he stayed with her throughout her journey with Alzheimer’s until she died. I was horrified by how he was treated by everyone in society who judged him based on his communication skills. They did not treat him with the respect and understanding that would have enabled him to be able to function at his potential. (Later when I was training, I borrowed an audiometer, tested his hearing, obtained an audiogram and persuaded our family GP to send him to have hearing aids fitted for the first time at the age of 50. His life was transformed. He joined a dating agency and met a lovely lady who he married when he was 64!)

I also went to a Christmas Party at my Dad’s workplace, where he dressed up as Father Christmas and I was his helper. The year when I was 13, there were children who couldn’t communicate in attendance, and the other children were on the whole horrible and mean, calling them names. I could not bear it. So for these two reasons, I was inspired to go straight from school to train to be a Speech and Language Therapist at the Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage, London, England.

I have loved my vocation since the day I started my training because I haven’t found yet an aspect of working with people who have communication challenges that I don’t absolutely love. When I qualified in 1985 and started working in the National Health Service (NHS), I found that I ended up working with the clients that no one else wanted to. There was no shortage of therapists queuing up to work with clients with voice or fluency needs, adult clients in hospitals, children in mainstream schools, or in community clinics with children who were delayed in their speech and language. There were also a smaller number of therapists who loved working with children with profound, multiple and complex special needs in special schools. However, finding therapists to work with children and adults who were Deaf, those with an autistic spectrum condition and those with severe speech, language and communication needs was more challenging. My first job was a mixed post working with children and adults, including the young chronic sick with advanced motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. As an independent therapist, I have continued to work with those clients, plus children and adults who have had a traumatic brain injury, and transgender clients desiring voice feminization.

I met my future husband, moved to East Anglia, got married, and was promoted to become a Chief Speech and Language Therapist for Paediatrics and Learning Disabilities based in a Child Development Centre. My mum came to live with us, we had three sons, and I got fed up with the politics in the NHS, which included being told who I could see, when I could see them and how long I could see them for. Often, that had nothing to do with that client’s needs. When I became an independent speech and language therapist, there was more than enough work. I built a clinic building in the garden and I began providing speech and language therapy. I also assessed children and adults all over the country, provided medico-legal reports and went with families to Court and Tribunal to give live expert evidence.

Economics Change the Playing Field

While you enter into the health, education or social care professions with dreams of assisting individuals find the best care for their circumstances, meeting their needs often meets the reality of limited resources. When financial hardships hit a government-run system, suddenly the focus is how to manage resources versus focusing on individual needs. Such was the case when the recession of the early 1990s hit and accountants took over the NHS. All the professional heads of service were made redundant across East Anglia, to be replaced by General or Locality Managers. So in one fell swoop, I lost my professional support and supervision, but also my career progression.

The Health Authority was split between purchasers and providers. The providers were split into different Trusts for Community vs. Acute Hospital Services; and Adult Mental Health Services were split off too. I quickly became disillusioned with being told who I could see, when and for how long I could see them, which was not based on patient need but on NHS resources. ‘They’ were more interested in how many patients I saw in a day rather than whether what I did with them enabled them to progress or not. In fact, if they were discharged and were re-referred, they could be counted again!

I was finding myself in the position of just moving patients through a system, regardless of whether or not I had been able to truly benefit them. Additionally, I found myself struggling to balance a part-time work schedule and a growing family, while not being satisfied with the work I was doing. The Trust did not like flexible hours of working and did not really like part-timers at all. I was running around ‘putting sticking plasters’ on things and not doing anything properly. I imagined the families of my patients saying, The speech and language therapist is very nice but we only see her once in a blue moon, so what she does doesn’t make a difference.

In my eyes, if I was not making a difference the job was not worth doing. But before I could imagine a change, I needed to find individuals that could not only inspire me, but also provide some direction of where to head next. But that meant looking outside of the system I was currently in to find inspiration.

Mentors: My Guide to a New Path

My experiences with the Trust had left me disillusioned, but at the same time, I was not sure where to go next. I sought mentors from outside the Trust and discovered Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). During my Master Practitioner Programme, I was introduced to exemplars of excellence from many different walks of life, such as Frank Farrelly, Raymond Blanc and Brian Keenan. These mentors provided me with direction and advice that fueled the next steps of my career and set me on the path to my true calling.

Frank Farrelly has gained international recognition as a profoundly gifted therapist. He is the author of several publications, including Provocative Therapy (with Jeff Brandsma). He has presented numerous workshops, seminars and demonstrations of his work for professional audiences throughout the United States, Europe and Australasia. His expertise in working with severely disturbed clients makes him an especially interesting and important teacher. Provocative Therapy was developed in an inpatient ward as Farrelly, dissatisfied with his effectiveness as a psychotherapist, began to explore new procedures for promoting significant, resilient change in chronic and recalcitrant patients. He worked in this institutional setting for 17 years, continuing to develop and refine his techniques. This inspired me to explore a new way of doing things, outside of the Trust and its system.

Farrelly said, If you enjoy what you are doing, you are in great danger of becoming good at it. I believe the converse is also true. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, then you are in great danger of being lousy at it! You may continue to be competent but not excellent and inspirational, and I wanted to strive for excellence. That meant parting ways with the Trust and striking out as a therapist with an independent practice.

Raymond Blanc is now one of the most renowned chefs in the UK, who has earned Michelin stars and an OBE, but is totally self-taught. Raymond said, When something is right you just know it inside deep in your gut. I knew that what I was doing in the NHS did not feel right, for me or for those people with whom I worked. It was time to do something different, which would allow me to put my