Community Living and Respite Services chief executive Leah Taaffe said more needs to be done to support the community during such uncertain times.
“A lot of information has been released by the government but it is not in easy read format or accompanied by Auslan, in the media a lot of discussion has been about how vulnerable the aged care community is but no discussion about people with disability who are also vulnerable, this has been represented by Auslan not being used like it was during the bushfire emergency in all communication,” she said.
Ms Taaffe said the stockpiling of food, toilet paper and other medical supplies is causing anxiety for people and families of people with disability.
“The same way as people with a low-income can’t afford to bulk-buy, people with disability need ongoing access to essential equipment or food items,” she said.
Coles and Woolworths are now trying to combat this with the introduction of an exclusive hour of shopping for the elderly and people with disability first thing in the morning when stores have been restocked.
“It’s a really welcome addition to their services, it shows they’re thinking about what the community needs,” she said.
“We haven’t cancelled any services based on the advice from the government, we’ll only cancel non-essential services if directed. We’ll support our clients and staff to stay as well and healthy as possible.
“Essential services include supports such as the activities of daily living which include showering, shopping and food prep, helping people in and out of bed, essentially to live their life, and we’ll continue to deliver these services for the foreseeable future and we’re planning to continue to do that through this period,” Ms Taaffe said.
The Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education and Children and Young people with Disability Australia conducted a survey of more 200 families of children with disability and found 82 per cent hadn’t been able to buy essential supplies for children and young people with a disability and 86 percent said they weren't receiving the information they needed to keep children or young people with disability safe during the crisis.
34 per cent had support workers or other NDIS services cancelled, 38 per cent were unable to work or suffered loss of income due to COVID-19 and 15 per cent had not been able to buy medication for children and young people.
Families said they were frustrated by the absence of Auslan interpreters on broadcast public health announcements, mixed messages from education systems across the country about social distancing and a lack of direction about the availability of vital support should carers be quarantined.
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