DS needs have significantly deteriorated over the past six months and the long term prognosis is for things to only get worse so after a ridiculously long wait we have finally been assessed by OT and she agrees that some major adaptations need to be done to our house to accommodate his needs.

The problem is she has been in and done her assessment and whilst we totally agree with her what DS needs we do not agree with her proposal. By doing things her way as a family we will lose our family bathroom (will become a wet room with just a shower, no bath). She wants to put a wheelchair elevator through from ground floor to his bedroom so we lose our dining room too. She then wants to put hoist tracking throughout upstairs and down. We will in effect live in a hospital rather than a home - her reply 'I'm only here to meet DS needs not the rest of the family, nor to make something aesthetically pleasing to me'

Our proposal is to convert our attached garage (which runs the length of the house) and make this into a bedroom/wet room with tracking for hoist. This will leave the rest of the house as it is. She just won't have it and says if we want that we fund it ourselves whereas her proposal will be fully funded by way of a disabled facilities grant.

I was wondering if any of you have any experiences in this area and if so, what happened in your case.

I am waiting on a surveyor this morning who is coming to advise me if my plan is feasible (can't see why it wouldn't be as water, plumbing and other utilities already in situ. A lot of houses on the estate have already converted their garages. She says the elevator alone will cost over £8500 and my first quote back to convert the garage is £11,000

Those of you caring for the disabled will know how I am feeling - why is everything such a battle