Disabled people – especially those who employ their own care staff – are being warned to take extra care as Coronavirus starts to spread in Britain.
First and foremost please keep up to date with guidance from Public Health England about what to do if you have symptoms, and what the government is doing about the virus.
The Government’s Department of Health and Social Care has launched an action plan but social care is barely mentioned.
Disability Rights UK ( DRUK )has spoken out, with its chief executive Kamran Mallick saying in a statement about Coronavirus that disabled people should not be seen as “inevitable cannon fodder in the face of COVID-19 when it is people with underlying health conditions who appear to be “bearing the brunt of the worst effects of this illness”.
Kamran went on to say that DRUK was seeking evidence that hospitals would be able to cope with “the most vulnerable cases in the event of mass infection” and added: “Our lives matter as much as the next person’s.”
Ministers have still been unable to answer key questions on how they plan to cope with the impact of coronavirus on social care, despite announcing £5 billion in emergency funding for public services, says the latest Disability News Service article .
Meanwhile The Business Disability Forum has issued advice for supporting disabled employees and customers.
A number of charitable organisations have produced information for their client groups including Inclusion North’s Easy Read Information for people with learning disabilities and the Alzheimer’s Society’s Information for people affected by dementia
