Support From Voluntary Organisations and others

Voluntary organisations are a very important source of help and support for people with a disability, and increasingly they are becoming direct providers of therapies and other services for disabled people.
Voluntary organisations exist for people with almost all long-term physical and mentally disabling conditions (see Groups and Organisations??), and many of these are highly professional not-for-profit businesses. They have in-depth understanding of the needs of the people they represent and are therefore able often to provide services that are more sensitive to user needs than those provided by health and social work/services.
Many of them also have a role as advocates for their client group: for example by 'lobbying' health authorities, MPs etc.

Help, advice, support (and often inspiration) may also be obtained from self-help groups, 'chat-lines', by finding out what others have achieved (e.g. in the field of sports) and by talking to others with similar conditions or experiences.