The skills needed to survive haven't changed much in the past century.

Before being diagnosed with MS nineteen years ago, I spent my free time hunting, fishing, camping, tracking, and living close to nature.  Now I can use the skills I learned back then in my everyday battle to just survive. 

Have you ever tried to find dental help when all you have to live on is an itty-bitty SSDI check?  No matter how hard you hunt for help, fish for answers, or camp on the bureaucrat’s doorstep (providing you can track one down) you can expect to be told to live closer to nature!  I guess that they think we don’t get tooth decay because we can’t afford candy.

Although I was considered above average at what I did, the system in which I now find myself calls for more ingenuity, perseverance, and control of myself than anything I had previously known.  The very first gauntlet I had to run was the Social Security system where I was fortunate enough to get a free refresher course on patience.  I had the opportunity to use all of the waiting skills that I had learned while hunting and fishing, as well as the chance to live closer to nature than I would like to admit to, while the government stalled.  I learned that it takes at least nine months for you to get your first check regardless of your disability.  I believe that this delay is part of a well-planed program that is designed so that you can die quietly; and broke.   
If you live in the country or in a small town and use equipment, your accessibility is limited by the environment you have chosen to live in.  I quickly learned that the only places I could go in my small hometown were the bank and the convenience store.  I’ll let you guess why, but I can guarantee that you had to visit one before you could afford to visit the other.
 “Why don’t you move into a bigger city?”  I heard this over and over until I decided to do it.  It wasn’t until I went hunting for the elusive accessible house or apartment that I had ever been on the bag holding end of a snipe hunt.   The help I received from people in the know was only surpassed by the people that didn’t know.  I again had the opportunity to utilize the unique skills that I had been perfecting the previous years.  The answer to the why don’t you move question slowly became all too clear.
The only thing that hadn’t been slowed down by the “system” was the progression of my illness.  What I needed now was a reliable helper to enable me to remain at home and be as independent as possible.  I said and did all of the right things (jumping through the hoops on cue) until I got the approval to have what I needed.  At this time I thought that I would be assigned a personal attendant that had been checked out by the state.  After all, this person would be getting paid by the state, so it’s logical to assume that the state would check into their past. (Wrong!!!)  I was given a paper with all of my information on it (how many hours and how much per hour) and a firm handshake that nearly made me fall from my wheelchair.  Along with a “good luck” I was sent on my merry way, free to hire anyone of my choosing.  This might have been a plus under other circumstances, but I knew no one because I had moved to that area in order to receive this service.  
A few days later I got a list of possible PA’s from the local CIL, thinking that this reputable organization would have only the best and brightest.  I was more than a little surprised to learn that the CIL not only didn’t know anything about the people on the list, but also didn’t want to know anything.  As a result my first PA robbed me of the only things of value I had left and the need to live close to nature returned. 

            It appears that the skills needed to survive haven’t changed much over the years.  You still have to know how to hunt, fish, track, and live close to nature. The only thing that has really changed is the name of the game.