COVID-19 face coverings mask the message
Many people experience hearing loss – from mild to disabling – but COVID-19 face masks are making communication even harder for people with hearing impairment
Resources
Bushfire safety and preparedness for people with disability
There are two online training modules that have been designed to assist disability workers operating in, or working with people with disability, in high risk bushfire areas.
The modules include:
1. Bushfire safety for workers – For any person who works in, or travels through, high risk areas over summer to learn about the risks, what preparedness means and how to stay safe on the roads and survive.
2. Bushfire planning: How to support your clients – For any person working with clients or patients in their homes, supporting them to live independently. You will learn about different types of risk environments, your responsibility in helping your clients as well as questions to get the bushfire safety conversation going and tips on how to build the Bushfire Survival Plan to leave early.
Disability meets disaster – case studies
Disasters amplify the existing fault lines already experienced by people with disability to live an ordinary life. The best way to truly understand the impact of disasters on people with disability is to hear their stories first hand. Let’s hear what Mark, Tim and James experienced in the midst of 2020’s disasters.
Social isolation linked to COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond loneliness for some, into feeling lost and ‘dispensable’, Q+A hears
As the panel discussed social fragmentation, Ms Kayess agreed it could lead to loneliness and said those living with a disability were highly exposed to it. “That specific [physical] segregation is structurally embedded for people with disability, the way they’re segregated in education, the way they’re segregated in terms of residential care and services,” she said.
Bridging the gaps and playing safe in crisis
People with disability have the right to be supported and stay safe through disasters just like everyone else. This panel session distilled the issues and failures that have been thrown up so far in this year of disasters, and then moved the focus to finding practical solutions to make crisis management inclusive. Bridget Tehan is the Policy Advisor Emergency Management at VCOSS and she facilitated this discussion with her guests Christina Ryan, CEO, Disability Leadership Institute, Adrian Terranova, Executive Officer, Gippsland Disability Advocacy Inc, Michele Watson, Coordinator for Community Programs, Aged & Disability Services and Deputy Municipal Recovery Manager at Yarra City Council and Angela Cook, Project Manager, Community Engagement, Country Fire Authority.
Preparing Vulnerable People Project & Person Centred Risk Assessment
Angela Cook, Project Manager, Community Engagement from the Country Fire Authority shares details of the ‘Preparing Vulnerable People’ project. The resources that have been developed as part of the project recognise that people with disability are in the best position to plan for their own safety in the event of a bushfire, because they know what they are able to do for themselves and what assistance is needed before, during and after an emergency.
Disability inclusive disaster preparedness
Associate Professor Michelle Villeneuve, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of Sydney, led the DISABILITY INCLUSIVE DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN NSW project. She outlines the key findings and steps to making a disaster management plan that is truly inclusive of people with disability.
Narrow leadership, poor decisions
What happens when an entire population group is absent from decision making forums? It makes it possible to forget them. The people who are most affected and should be central considerations in emergency responses are left out.
For people with disability, the pandemic has brought hardship and neglect, Commission hears
Despite the refrain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that ‘we are all in this together’, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability last week revealed the many hardships encountered by people with a disability over the past six months.
Public hearing 5: Experiences of people with disability during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic
Noting the Royal Commission’s Statement of Concern released on 26 March 2020 about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disability, and Issues Paper on Emergency Planning, the hearing highlighted the experiences of people with disability during the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.
Disability Meets Disaster: Case studies
Disasters amplify the existing fault lines already experienced by people with disability to live an ordinary life. The best way to truly understand the impact of disasters on people with disability is to hear their stories first hand. Let’s hear what Mark, Tim and James experienced in the midst of 2020’s disasters.
Coronavirus exposes Indigenous disability gaps, royal commission hears
Damian Griffis, chief executive of the First Peoples Disability Network, said the virus has exacerbated existing inequalities in Australia. He said the group has received phone calls from across the country from people who don’t have access to crucial items such as incontinence pads.
Covid-19 terrifies Australians with disabilities, who feel they are ‘expendable’
Australians with disabilities have suffered higher rates of domestic and family violence, are experiencing suicidal thoughts, and felt “expendable” during the Covid-19 pandemic, a royal commission has heard.
“Left out and locked down” The experiences of people with disability and their families during COVID19
More than 700 people with disability and their families filled out the survey that asked about your experiences during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. What impact did the pandemic have on your lives? How did you cope and what you thought of the changes made to the NDIS during this time?
The problems raised were the usual issues – confusing, changing and inconsistent information, lengthy delays, lack of flexibility, poor treatment at the hands of Local Area Coordinators or NDIA staff. These issues are bad enough at the best of times. But in the middle of a global pandemic they stood in the way of people with disability getting what they needed to stay safe and well.
Working together to protect Victorians with disabilities
The Australian and Victorian Governments will enhance the coronavirus response in disability residential care through a strengthened Disability Response Centre to coordinate and manage outbreaks and keep residents safe.