Dusty Wentworth

An Introduction: Beyond Suspicion and Hostility Disabled people in Britain are living with the consequences of an underfunded NHS, a fragmented social care system and a political climate that has normalised suspicion and hostility. Public debate has shifted its focus to welfare spending, overlooking the human lives at stake. The result is a country where disabled people are routinely failed by the systems designed to support them. My life as a 52 year old father of three young children, living with complex neurological and psychological conditions following a catastrophic medical event, is a case study in how severely the British state is failing its most vulnerable citizens. Catastrophe and the Absence of Support In October 2023 my life changed instantly. A brain aneurysm ruptured at home, causing a subarachnoid haemorrhage. I collapsed and awoke in intensive care a month later. The rupture left me with an acquired brain injury that affects memory, cognition, processing an...