MOBILITY MATTERS MENTAL HEALTH, ASSISTANCE DOGS AND TAXIS!
The ‘invisible illness’ is what poor mental health can be referred to. Although someone may not have lost an arm or a leg, it is just as debilitating for people who suffer from the dreadful condition of Mental Health Disability Impairment (MHDI).
MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS
One in four people within the UK will suffer from poor mental health at some point and one in three of those blame the workplace for their illness.
Some of the conditions MHDI covers are: • Anxiety
• Depression
• Eating problems • Phobias
• Bipolar disorder • Schizophrenia
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder • Personality disorders
These MHDI conditions are sometimes demonstrated by physical or psychological signs of distress by the person, others do not. This is where RAD steps in!
RAD (Recovery Assistance Dogs) is a mental health charity, registered in England and Wales, that provides support for people suffering from MHDI. RAD supports its members by teaching the MHDI sufferer to train their own dog as an Assistance Dog.
An assistance dog (AD) is classed as an aid to that MHDI sufferer, just like a wheelchair is to a physically diasabled person. Who says? The Equality Act 2010 – back to that part later!
RAD is a membership charity which is unique in the fact that the membership fee is just £2 a week for MHDI sufferers within the UK - RAD does not means test. For that £2 a week members get expert support in training their own dog as their assistance dog. ADs are trained to very high standards so that they can mitigate the symptoms of an MHDI RAD registered person (the physical or psycho- logical symtoms).
RAD members have to prove to RAD that they are indeed diagnosed with an MHDI condition via their doctor, psychia- trist, medical health worker or counsellor. RAD holds that information in a secure database.
ASSISTANCE DOGS
The RAD member has to have their own dog to train as an assistance dog. RAD does not supply dogs. The RAD members’ dogs can be any breed, any age, any colour and
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A disability is defined by the Equality Act 2010 as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.
JUNE 2022 • PTSD
any size but they have one thing in common – they are well behaved and trained to specific standards to mitigate their handlers’ illness symptoms. Some of the RAD trained assistance dogs have saved their handlers’ lives by prevent- ing suicide attempts. Amazing!
Most of the RAD members have ID badges and most have a RAD dog vest or other vest showing that their dog is an assistance dog.
TAXIS AND PRIVATE HIRE DRIVERS
Most of the RAD MHDI Members (and other people with their ADs) do not drive so rely heavily on public transport. Some of the discrimination RAD members receive is from that sector of services and business.
The effect of confrontation for MHDI sufferers can be profound and reactions can be anything from walking off to having an anxiety attack or even worse.
RAD supports all members against discrimination where access is denied to their assistance dog. The member contacts RAD which will firstly approach the taxi or private hire company of the driver involved in order to elicit an apology and the promise that they will retrain their staff or their representatives.
If no apology is received or a denial is made, RAD then pass it to the Human Rights and Equality Commission (HREC) for enquiry and possible unlimited fines for discrimination.
Every day I deal with discrimination against RAD members and their ADs because they are not blind or visibly disabled and the AD is not a Labrador, they are not perceived as suffering from a health condition.
So taxis and private hire vehicles come into the story as they have a duty to observe the Equality Act 2010. In the context of accessing taxis and PHVs, the term ‘assistance dog’ is defined in the Act:
“dogs trained to guide a blind person/other persons or a person with a Mental Health Disability Impairment (MHDI) are to be recognised as assistance dogs.”
EQUALITY ACT 2010
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