- Hello lovely people.

I'm Jessica, a disabled YouTuber.

Yes, I do refer to myself in that way

and yes it is okay for you to do so too.

A disabled YouTuber who's making a series

about finally getting my first powered mobility aid.

You can watch the series so far

by clicking the card above or going to the link

in the description below.

In short, I've recently come to the conclusion

that a powered mobility aid would be a good idea for me.

I have these like weak, wobbly feet and hands

plus painful joints and chronic fatigue

and I love going to new places but I find it really hard

when I can't actually move around very easily.

I look lovely standing up, I mean see my Instagram.

(bell dings)

I just can't do it for very long and I can't get very far.

I spent most of my time in this series

kind of wobbling.

Pun now intended, wobbling between a mobility scooter

and a power chair.

I want something that I can use easily inside my house

but I also want something I can use in pavements,

maybe even off road.

In other words, I wanted a unicorn.

Don't tell me unicorns can't live inside a house,

they're unicorns, they can grow and shrink at will.

As a lot viewers noticed and mentioned in the comments,

both here and on Twitter,

usually people make these choices

with the help of an occupational therapist.

Occupational therapy being the use of assessment

and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain activities

considered meaningful to those with bodies

that are a little different to the default.

I have quite complex needs and an ongoing health condition

that is doing its own thing most of the time.

I know I talked about this in my last video

called I Was Misdiagnosed

and I will also put that in the card above

and thank you so much for the amazing comments,

but I've been having a bit of a difficult time

accessing things like occupational therapy or physiotherapy

because you have to go through your doctor

and I was told in the past that those services

aren't available to me

in terms of the like day-to-day living things I need

but only when I actually injure myself,

which sure it's pretty often

but the wait list is six months.

So I decided to figure it out by myself

whether power chair or mobility scooter

would be the best option for me

by renting one of each for a week, then that makes sense.

Except that I then got freaked out

by how medicalized the first power chair I rented was

so then I only used it once

and then I hired another one

for the event that I had to go to

because apparently my medical drama isn't going anywhere

and it even overrides my incredibly stingy side

which balked at the idea

of having to spend another 350 pounds.

Yes, I know.

They're aware they have a captured market.

Which did I choose?

Well oh well, it really did turn out rainbows in the end

and you'll just have to keep watching to find out.

(bell dings)

Even though I made my journey

without the help of an occupational therapist

I didn't want you to miss out on the important info

so with the help of Twitter

I connected with an expert online.

Jo Southall is an OT who through an online business

offers a range of services and is an expert

in complex long-term conditions.

I hired her for half an hour's chat

in order to get some professional answers for us all.

So I had absolutely no idea that it was possible

to talk to an occupational therapist over a video call.

I actually had no idea

you could even privately see an occupational therapist.

- So probably the reason why you weren't aware

it was available via video call

is because to the best of my knowledge,

I'm the only one in the UK doing it.

I think there's one in America and one in South Africa.

Some of us will offer things like this if you request it

but it's not standard service to offer yet.

I'm hoping it will be.

I spend quite a lot of time at conferences

trying to convince people to do things this way

because it's better, as far as I'm concerned.

- [Jessica] It's the future.

- It is, absolutely.

- As I mentioned earlier,

I think a large part of my struggle to receive help

is because I have very complex needs

and from my experience it feels like people with one problem

may have a doctor that knows which clinics

they then need to be referred to

whilst I've spent my life with a nerve doctor

saying it's a tissue problem

and a tissue doctor saying it's a nerve problem.

Obviously that isn't everyone's experience

but there are a lot of people with complex needs

who feel like they kind of fall through the gaps.

So my experience with occupational therapy in the past

has always been like an accident that I've had.

I've not been able to just receive day-to-day help.

- That's probably the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing

because there is a massive kind of gap

for people in general.

So I fall into that bracket as well

where I've got a lot of chronic stuff

that I was born with that got progressively worse

or progressively more complicated.

There wasn't really a service that fit my needs

unless there was an acute element to it.

So I could have a genetic disorder

but I also had to fall down the stairs.

Social services is available for a lot of people

and they'll send OTs to come out and visit you

for long-term health conditions but again

that tends to be focused on the very, very basics of life

like can you get up and dressed,

can you get in and out of your house,

and can you make a sandwich and a cup of tea?

And the budget for anything more fulfilling

than the absolutely basics

tends to be a little bit limited.

- With that in mind and for those of you

who are watching this video because maybe you're searching

for your own mobility aid,

here's how you can find a local OT

and what the process is like.

Also, you can go online, who knew?

Not me.

Where would you advise that people go

or the keywords that they should be searching

to find an occupational therapist?

- So I generally always recommend

that if a person can get NHS help they do

simply because I'm aware that a lot of people

have a lot of ongoing health needs.

NHS wheelchair services is available.

Referral process varies from sort of county to county.

There are kind of groups of people

that just don't meet the criteria

for wheelchair services that do then end up

either seeking support for other wheelchair users online

or coming to somebody like me.

A lot of the kind of big wheelchair suppliers

around the world,

their staff is primarily made up of wheelchair users

and it is kind of worth looking into places like this,

just mobility showrooms

and just seeing if you can find some of the bigger places.

Definitely worth kind of talking to these guys

to see if you actually need somebody like me.

- The funny thing is I originally thought

that Jo might be able to help me choose

between the power chair that I really liked

and the mobility scooter I really liked.

The wheelchair I like folds, it's pretty light,

it's small enough to go through normal door frames,

I can use it in doors, in a tube station, on the train.

The power chair I wanted, on the other hand,

is great for trips to the park or the local shops.

It can easily handle pavements, I wasn't gonna fall off it,

I could even put Claudia on it with me if I wanted

and it's really gorgeous.

So I scheduled the call with Jo

but then GreenPower said they'd send me a mobility scooter.

I too am shocked.

Hello, so I'm about to go out for the very first time

on my new mobility scooter and I'm very excited

but I'm also slightly nervous

because as Claudia pointed out

it just looks like a regular motor scooter

'cause it's gorgeous and I'm really pleased about that

but it was potentially a bad thing

because maybe people will say hey,

you can't bring this in the park

or you're not allowed this on the pavement,

even though you are allowed

to actually drive it on the pavement.

I haven't driven on a road in about 10 years.

Thanks, she's been doing some great support this morning

by which I mean she's been like yeah,

you should probably be worried that people won't allow it

and I'm like ah.

We're gonna have a great day out to the park.

(upbeat music)

The Unique500 electric mobility scooter from GreenPower

has a beautiful vintage design

and it comes in a range of colors

and unfortunately the white was not available to send to me

I imagine because it's understandably probably very popular.

It has an amazingly long running range

of 45 miles per full charge.

Thank goodness, because Claudia

definitely does not want to push that one up a hill.

It can easily reach the max allowed speed

for mobility scooters

and it doesn't feel like it's killing itself to get there.

Have I mentioned that it's beautiful.

(chimes tinkle)

This retro goddess has both front and rear suspension

so your little bottom won't feel a thing

as you go over bumps, unlike some other models.

The headlights are adorable.

The rear view mirrors are adorable.

The padded seat is comfortable.

It has front and back hand brakes.

The only issue I found

was not everyone else seemed to realize

it was a mobility scooter and therefore allowed in the park.

We're back from the park

and we almost didn't film anything whilst we were there

because there were lots and lots of people at the park.

- It'd been raining all weekend

and today's the first morning where it was like not raining

and then everyone kept stopping you and be like,

oh what is that?

Is that a motor bike?

Is that a, they're like ooh.

- And just also staring quite weirdly.

- Feeling like they could touch it.

It was a bit weird, wasn't it?

- A lot of the kind of older women

were glaring at me quite a lot I felt like

because they would be like,

uh why are you driving a motorbike in the park?

It's definitely not allowed.

- Well even though they thought

you were driving a motorbike in the park

they thought that's not allowed

or they thought you were on a mobility scooter

but you obviously don't need it

so you're just trying to like get a cool one.

- Maybe they thought that were just there

to do a photo shoot.

- Then I think they thought

why have they got their two dogs with them

if they're doing a photo shoot?

Is there room to say that if it was,