For a person with a disability and many years of extensive experience with most sectors of health care delivery, one of the most scary and fearful thoughts is anticipating going to a transitional care unit (TCU) or rehabilitation center after a stay in the hospital.
The entire month of July is now celebrated as Disability Pride Month. This is a good idea as the LGBTQ community has certainly been successful organizing a grass roots effort to celebrate Pride in June. Disability pride month is about celebrating our differences without using the label special needs.
This episode of Disability Vewpoints discusses one and one with two individuals with disabilities that had Covid 19 and how they managed through the illness. Mathew, Sanford and Nick Wilkie were the guests with Mark Hughes and Joan Willshire.
As usual, the biggest issues I run into are curb cuts clogged with snow and access aisles of the disability parking spots not shoveled out completely.
There’s truly a lack of awareness about the access aisle in the disability parking area. Minnesota Building Code requires a 10-foot access in the disability parking area. This means the entire parking area must be cleared of snow and ice!
Imagine the loss of mobility and independence, the disruption of routines, the day program that doesn’t open, the beloved caregiver who doesn’t come, and the lack of support that leaves some families with now choice but to instituionalize their loved ones, and you have a sense of what many in the disability community are going through every day due to COVID-19.
What’s the worst part about a routine trip to the doctor’s office—the long wait, the old magazines, the fear of needles? Add a disability, and you’ve got a recipe for a very stressful event, instead of a routine medical visit.
