Experiences with support from council occupational therapy?

Androgen

Hi,

I live in a private rented house with a friend of mine, we're both disabled and "part time" wheelchair users (basically only used outside of the house because the house itself isn't really suitable for it indoors) since neither of us can walk very far, very fast, or for very long, and it's incredibly painful. 

We have issues with parking outside our house (too many cars, not enough space/driveways) and we live at the top of a steep hill that neither of us can walk or propel up, and the last time we tried my housemate fell and ended up dislocating her hip, and it's now permanently stuck out of place so she can't really walk at all anymore. We reached out to the council for help and they told us it wasn't their problem, and told us to try occupational therapy because they can help people who have access problems, so we got in touch with them.
 
The person we spoke to at occupational therapy said that parking isn't something they deal with, and also said that because we're both physically capable of standing and taking our own body weight, they don't consider either of us to need a wheelchair (even though the wheelchairs were recommended by physio/rheumatology) so we wouldn't be given any kind of equipment or adaptations in relation to that, I'm just curious if this is "normal" I guess? Has anyone else had help from occupational therapy or is this the standard requirement to qualify for support? We've seen things about the "Disabled Facilities Grant" that seems to cover both physical and mental health issues, so we weren't expecting there to be a minimum criteria of not being able to stand or anything

Androgen

Purrrrrrr said:

Anyone can apply for a disabled parking bay. and your case looked into.  The only problem is anyone disabled can park in it, even non-disabled can park there as it's not enforceable.  

Im sure someone else can help you further I only know this as I applied for one on the recommendation of the OT no one told me I could apply without help. I'm still waiting for it as it happens, they don't rush these things, 

 

This is actually why we reached out to the council in the first place, they've told us they won't do it because it won't benefit the whole community, and basically that it's a waste of money because they can't enforce it, they told us to put up a sign (which we already did, and told them in the original email) so I think it varies by council!