To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.
This Better Story was collected by Maresa Berliri
A tailored guide for people with disabilities
During COVID-16, there were more risk for a person with a disability to face discrimination when needing health care. Even before the pandemic, hospitalised disabled people and their families often encountered many barriers: machines not adapted to their needs, insufficient or untrained staff, long waits, etc. Difficulties and limitations that the crisis has exacerbated in many cases, making it even more complex to guarantee a safe medical environment for people with disabilities.
For this, the ASMeD, Associazione per lo studio dell’assistenza medica alla persona con disabilità, and the Italian Society of Ergonomics and Human Factors have developed a guide to address the management of COVID-19 risk for people with neurodevelopmental disorders, intellectual disabilities, who are living in semi-residential, residential, or work settings.
An exemplar inclusive model
The guidelines were written based on the experiences of the associations (ASMeD and SIE) during the first phase of the pandemic. The document provides guidance and good practices to reduce contagion by guaranteeing the right to physical and mental health. As highlighted on the initiative website: « It is necessary to think of a tailored medicine: adapted treatments imply different responses according to the contexts.”