By Julien Morel

Copyright jerseyeveningpost

A BARRIER to inclusivity might be a pavement or a flight of steps but it might easily be a form that is printed in too small a font or an opinion or attitude that someone holds.

Enable Jersey is a 55-year-old charity that sees itself as Jersey’s all-embracing disability organisation – one that points Islanders to other charities and services that can help them with financial, physical or emotional support.

It also gives disabled Islanders – and there are more than 16,000 of them – a voice by coordinating responses to public consultation on, for example, new laws and policies coming from the government.

By sharing views of those with lived experience, Enable Jersey hopes that any wrinkles in matters that effect people with disabilities are ironed out at an early stage.

That new building might look flash but how easy is it for someone in a wheelchair to go to the loo, for example?

The charity also has a new service reselling used care and medical equipment from its base at the Jersey Recycling Centre at La Collette.

Explaining Enable’s services, the charity’s support services manager Suzanne Day said: “When our chief executive Sean Pontin came on board in 2021, he did a big piece of scoping work with the disability community to talk about what was out there, what people were missing, and what do people need.

“What came out of that was a need to have somebody to be alongside them in their journey of disability and help them to navigate what was out there.”

“After that scoping work, we looked at all the sorts of activities that were already out there and what we found was that there wasn’t really a pan-disability service or organisation that people could come to ask the tricky questions, such as: where do I go to find out about a certain benefit when the benefit papers are written in really complex language?

“Or my husband has just had a stroke; where do I find an accessible barber?”

She added: “The other element that we knew we really wanted to tackle was, how do we make sure people with lived experience are front and centre of conversations and decisions that are being made around policy and law changes and service development.

“So, instead of asking us after the plans have been made, how do we create a space for people with lived experience and disability to contribute their views in a safe, unsanitised way?

“We developed a service called Enable Voice, which bring together people with first-hand experience of living with a disability or lifelong condition, their family, friends and carers, to ensure their voice and experience is included in discussions around service design and delivery on the Island.

“That is not just about government policy but also about issues in the wider community and business sector too.

“We then try to ensure that those views are fed into the relevant people.

“It is not just gathering together individuals but also other organisations.”

Suzanne said that the debate around assisted dying legislation was a good example of the Voice being heard.

“We were concerned that when the laws were being developed, there wasn’t a space for people directly living with disability to share their views on the consultation. This wasn’t about Enable having a view on the merits of assisted dying but it more about making sure that there was a space for people to share their views.”

Enable, she said, made that a practical reality by, for example, making sure that there was a sign language interpreter available and various forms of documentation.

Another service provided is Enable Connect and Wellbeing.

Suzanne said: “We have a team of support workers who don’t offer personal care but one-to-one support along somebody’s journey. That might be around trying to find out about benefits or get some changes with their housing.

“It could be around finding out what social activities are out there or needing a review about their mobility equipment. We don’t provide the answers ourselves but stand with someone to get the right people in place.

“We’ve got about 100 clients on the books and probably work with about 30 at any one time. It can be quite an intense process to support someone on their journey. It’s free and there is no threshold to join the service. Also, although an issue can be dealt with, it is never closed.

“That means that if another matter arises, nobody has to restart the process. It builds up lasting trust, which is invaluable.”

The third service pillar of the charity is a new one: Enable Equip.

“This officially launches at the beginning of October but it is up and running,” said Suzanne. “It is the former Acorn Reuse Centre at the La Collette Recycling Centre, which is now the home of Enable Equip.

“We would get calls from people, for example, who would have a profile bed that they don’t need anymore. Then, two days later, somebody would ring and say they really needed a profile bed, but we weren’t able to connect the two.

“Care equipment is very expensive and bespoke so we spent a good period of time scoping out, with Health and Safety partners, the Consumer Council and others on how we could set up a service to repurpose care equipment that was no longer needed.

“I’m pleased to say that we have got there, and the service is very busy already.

“The idea is that people donate equipment to us that they no longer need. We clean it and if it’s a very technical piece of kit, like a bed, it gets serviced by some partners. We then sell it on for a very, very, very reduced cost; the project washes its face.”

“The recycling staff at La Collette are brilliant and give us all sorts of stuff that they see but the idea is that people can bring their care equipment to us.

She added: “The centre is open on a Wednesday and a Friday, 10am to 4pm. Islanders wanting equipment can either ring us beforehand or go down to have a look.

“It’s a bit like a charity shop for care or medical equipment so everything is sold as seen. However, we’re not pretending to be healthcare professionals so if it’s a very technical piece of kit, we will be talking to partners about how they can provide some advice,” Suzanne said.

“What’s interesting is that we are having conversations with people who might come for a commode but then share the journey that they’re on, and we’re able to share information about that.

“So, for example, we’ll hear: ‘mum has just come out of hospital and we’re not sure where to start with long-term care’.

“We will work alongside them to navigate that path and signpost them to other services and supporting organisations

“We believe that if somebody’s built the courage up to ring us or come and see us, then we’ll often ask if they need help on their journey. If they say no, that’s fine: I can just give them the number.

“But I think there’s a reason why someone has picked up the phone rather than Googled the details of long-term care and I firmly believe it’s because they need some TLC.

“It’s not because people are daft but if a parent has just had, for example, a stroke, you’re often living with trauma. And maybe the information is hard to navigate, in which case you probably need somebody to sit with you over a coffee and help chart a path.”

Suzanne – who was a pharmacy technician at the Hospital then student services manager at Beaulieu before joining Enable – said that inclusion, which is being highlighted currently with National Inclusion Week, was an important topic of conversation.

She said: “Everybody has the same rights as anybody else and we should all be able to access exactly the same thing. But for a long time, we talked about equality and people having access to the same things but actually those options were not equitable.

“There’s that old adage about being invited to a party but nobody asking you to dance. They’re two very different things: a door can be wide open but if you can’t access the information you need inside, it is still a wasted journey.

“Enable helps people to access what they need so they’re able to dance.”

INCLUSION BREAKFAST ON FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER

Accessible hotel Maison des Landes is hosting a free breakfast event to mark National Inclusion Week and to promote inclusion in the workplace this Friday at 8.30 am, with guest speakers representing Jersey Employment Trust, Beresford Street Kitchen and PwC CI. The breakfast is aimed at everyone with an interest in making their workplace more inclusive, especially business leaders and HR professionals. Click here for tickets.