Unresolved problems such as inaccessibility of facilities and lack of information have worsened with Covid. Two Uildm surveys say it, presented on 8 March in a webinar
Delays, postponements and cancellations of visits, outpatient services and diagnostic tests during the pandemic have become the order of the day, creating enormous problems already for able-bodied patients. But people with disabilities
they had to face obstacles
that have turned out to be for them often insurmountable. They did not receive the necessary protection. The pandemic has highlighted the inadequacy of health and social services – he stresses Silvia Cutreravice president of Fish (Italian Federation of overcoming handicap) -. After the closure of local services, people remained confined to residential servicesin their own homes without having access to alternative measures, in their homes if they already lived alone.
The pandemic
The fundamentals are missing as remarked by Fish and Fand (Federation of national associations of people with disabilities), or both the implementation of the essential levels of assistance and the provision of aids and aids. In this pandemic period, we have all realized how important access to treatment is. We have experienced how appointments were moved to make room for the emergency and how certain departments did not allow for new visits to be made or were converted into Covid sectors.
All to the detriment of prevention, treatment or surgery of a different nature
. For many people with disabilities, this sense of exclusion from access to health services is often the norm, he adds Stefania Pedroni, vice-president of the Italian Union against muscular dystrophy (Uildm). The situation becomes even more critical for those suffering from a serious pathology, such as a rare genetic disease. In fact, it often happens that important periodic visits to monitor the course of the disease are postponed. Even on the issue of vaccines, people with disabilities have found themselves at a disadvantage.
The 2006 UN Convention
And even when these patients have problems that are not directly related to their pathology (ophthalmology, gynecological, mental) their right to health is not always guaranteed. Instead, it is a inviolable right, sanctioned by article 25 of the UN Convention of 2006
according to which disabled people must be able to enjoy the best possible state of health without discrimination related to their disability. For this reason, member states are asked to come provided them health services equal to those of everyone else. In Italy, the translation into practice of this recommendation has to deal with endless obstaclesstarting from the inaccessibility of the structures due to the presence of architectural barriers to arrive and little information on health available by people with disabilities and often to the lack of adequate preparation of the medical teams on the particular needs of these patients.
Double discrimination
When a woman is disabled, the matter becomes even more complicated. According to research byEige (European Institute for Gender Equality, European Institute for Gender Equality) 13 per cent of disabled women say they are not satisfied with health care, against 5 per cent of able-bodied ones. In fact, women are subject to double discrimination: as regards gender and as disabled people. Very often the discrimination is even more subtle, because it is the result of a “skillful” attitude which emerges above all in the relationship with the other: when a health worker considers people with disabilities as inferior, asexual, unfit to live with a partner or to be parents, he takes a partial and fragmented point of view that does not allow him to place the other in the conditions of being the protagonist of his own care choices, making it more vulnerable to the risks we are exposed to, explains Pedroni.
The report
A confirmation of how long and bumpy the road to take to guarantee the right to health still is comes from the new report Sexuality, Maternity, Disability prepared by the Psychologists Group and the Women Group of Uildm (it will be discussed during the webinar promoted by Uildm – Italian Union for the fight against muscular dystrophy Tuesday 8 March at 5.30 pm. For registration and links visit the site uildm.org). The survey was born on the basis of various positive experiences lived by the women of our association, which stimulated the curiosity to go and resume the survey developed in 2013 and to propose it again after almost 10 years. The desire was to verify if this cultural change had really taken place, in order to understand on which aspects to involve the public debate more, explains Stefania Pedroni. To carry out the investigation, they were compiled 131 questionnaires and organized participation in focus groups by disabled women; 97.7% of them had a motor disability and 2.3% visual; they came from different areas of Italy; they had different educational qualifications, marital status and family situation.
The results
Most of the criticisms, the most relevant, still persist, such as, the lack of accessible toiletsan adjustable bed and / or a lift; the changing rooms are not large enough, so that patients in wheelchairs can move freely; the rooms are not soundproofed in such a way as to guarantee adequate privacy; L
to presence of architectural barriers
along the routes; inadequate preparation of the medical staff on the specific needs of women with disabilities. I believe that a cultural change is still taking place in terms of greater awareness of one’s body, needs and desires by women with disabilities. Of course, disability still remains a limit because the environment around us is not built in terms of accessibility, concludes Pedroni.
March 7, 2022 (change March 7, 2022 | 11:11)
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