A disabled woman has caught COVID-19 from a support worker after the National Disability Insurance Agency refused to allow her sister to provide care instead during the pandemic. Sheree Driver told the disability royal commission on Wednesday that her sister’s mental state had rapidly declined after being without care for almost a month as a result of the decision.
The Federal Government’s emergency response plan to COVID-19 made no mention of people living with a disability, a royal commission has heard. Senior Counsel Assisting Kate Eastman SC said people with a disability and their advocates “watched and waited” for the Government to come up with a plan. But people living with disability were conspicuously absent.
People with disability and their families felt forgotten amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and many struggled to make ends meet, new research shows.
The evacuation of all the residents from a special accommodation facility at the centre of a COVID-19 cluster has prompted warnings that disability services will face more outbreaks without immediate intervention.
Residents and workers in group homes for people with disabilities face “a looming emergency” due to lack of training in use of personal protective equipment and inadequate preparation to combat coronavirus infection. Outbreaks of COVID-19 similar to those in 87 Victorian aged care homes were likely in the disability care sector unless nurses were brought in for training, according to the director of the Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne, Professor Anne Kavanagh.
In May 2020, the ILO Global Business and Disability Network conducted two surveys – one for National Business and Disability Networks (NBDN) and one for those networks’ company members – to identify good practices and gaps in responding to the COVID-19 crisis in a disability-inclusive way. In total, 159 companies from 22 countries (representing four regions) participated in the company survey, and 19 national networks participated in the NBDN survey.
Victorian disability advocacy organisations are calling on the Commonwealth and State Governments to give urgent priority to protecting people with disability from the grave risks of a COVID-19 outbreak, including residents in Victoria’s 800 disability group homes.
Disability groups say a holistic plan is urgently needed to protect Victorians with disability during the state’s extended lockdown period, and prevent a deadly outbreak from occurring in group homes.
In my state, Victoria, plans to return to the office have been foiled by a second wave of Covid-19. While the circumstances in Melbourne are extremely difficult, I must admit “normal” has not been my bag for a very long time.
or Ronelle – who has two children with disability who attend mainstream schools in rural Victoria – the move to remote learning has highlighted the inequality in Australia’s school system.
New rules on wearing face masks have caused particular issues for deaf people and those who are hard of hearing, prompting calls for patience. Deaf Victoria and the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit say the mask rules, which apply in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire, require particular sensitivity for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
Australia’s COVID-19 response needs a stronger focus on the structural problems that were prevalent pre-pandemic to ensure vulnerable people aren’t left behind, experts say.
Disability advocates are concerned by the Victorian government’s plan to allow students with disability to return to school, with fears this will put vulnerable children in greater danger of contracting COVID-19. The Victorian government has announced that students from Prep to Year 10 at government schools in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will learn from home from 20 July until at least 19 August.
John McKenna is passionate about hearing and sharing the stories of others and their experience of disability. During the coronavirus pandemic he’s put his skills to creating a podcast which explores the pandemic through the lens of disability. What he’s discovered is a range of stories which can teach us all a thing or two about adversity and resilience.
Some residents say it’s taking too long to receive food and medicine, and that communication from authorities has been poor. Disability groups say they’re worried that people in the nine towers who rely on the National Disability Insurance Scheme have lost access to their carers, and may be unable to call for help.