Improved health services essential for persons with disabilities, says advocate

Aug 17, 2016 News

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Although having a disability does not mean that a person is permanently sick, there are, however, occasions that they will suffer from some ailments that will require medical attention just like persons without disabilities.

This notion was recently amplified by member of the National Commission on Disability and Guyana Society for the Blind, Ganesh Singh.
Singh, who is blind, disclosed during an interview with this publication that what is particularly worrying is that accessibility to persons with disabilities is not always catered for at most health institutions. And this is especially evident at regional hospitals and health centres.
“Most of them have steps and they have no ramps…so people who have to use wheelchairs they have a difficulty accessing them,” Singh said.
Compounding this state of affairs, he added, is that there are often obstacles to traversing the environment, even if persons are able to access some health facilities.
But perhaps among the worst dilemmas that persons with disabilities face, Singh noted, is that they are sometimes confronted with the unsavoury attitudes of some health care professionals.
According to Singh, while oftentimes a person with a disability is accompanied by someone when they visit a health facility, this does not mean that they do not have the ability to communicate to the health professionals themselves.
“Most times they speak directly to that person and not you (the person with the disability),” Singh added.
“Oftentimes they (persons with disabilities) are treated in a way that is inhumane sometimes,” said Singh as he stressed that “we need to give some priority when there are persons with severe or complicated disabilities.”
But among the challenges that must be urgently addressed too, Singh noted, is a limitation within the health sector to communication with persons who are deaf.
He pointed out that because usually there are no doctors or nurses at these health care facilities who are versed in sign language, a very disturbing challenge can surface. And this, Singh said, translates to the inclusion of a third party who may not even be a relative of the deaf person seeking health care. Consequently, he noted, “there is no confidentiality…a person that you do not know may be able to know all of your medical business.”
To arrest this challenge forthwith, Singh considered that large health care institutions such as the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation could train a few professionals in sign language and always have one on-call.
But according to him “while we have gone a far way, there are some persons, because of the nature of their disability, they are unable to sit or stand for long periods and it could be very tedious and that adds to the already existing challenges”.
It was in order to help persons with disabilities get around with some ease that the Ministry of Health had some years ago procured an accessible bus. According to Singh, persons with disabilities simply had to contact the Commission and make appointments to visit various health facilities and they were transported by the bus. The bus was in operation for a few months before it was reportedly involved in an accident and has ever since been out of commission. But according to Singh, “we hope that this can be reintroduced.”
Seeking to put measures in place to ensure the persons with various disabilities can easily access health care is essential since, according to Singh, “if we are speaking about this need for independency for everybody, we need to start doing things that will help us to achieve this.”
Over the years efforts have been made to advocate for some level of priority treatment for persons with disabilities.
According to Singh “we have been lobbying and we have made some strides…”
This has seen the Health Ministry driven by the Disability Act striving to meet its mandate to offer rehabilitation services countrywide and, according to Singh, “I can say they have accomplished that aspect. Even if there isn’t a rehab centre in some regions they do go from time to time to provide rehab services.”
Singh disclosed, too, that because of its sizeable membership, the Guyana Society for the Blind has been benefiting from an arrangement with the Ministry, whereby a health team visits its Lot 44 High Street, Werk-en-rust, Georgetown location every second Wednesday of each month to offer health care services.
“We had this arrangement under the previous Minister and it still exists…the team comes and offers us blood pressure testing, blood glucose testing, and dispenses medication and even offers referrals,” Singh added.

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