2 minute read
From the Editor
Editor, Angharad Burnham discusses the need for more focus on support for adults aged under 65.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that national media has almost completely ignored people with learning disabilities and how they’ve been impacted by COVID19. The coverage that was given to adult social care focused nearly entirely on older people living in care homes, while anyone outside of that bracket was side-lined.
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This is not something new. Adult social care is widely thought of by the public as ‘old people’s homes’, with thought not given to those adults who live with disabilities – of all types – meaning they require support in another setting, at home, or in the community.
UNWANTED ATTENTION
The focus on older people engaged the public with adult social care, but not necessarily in a positive way. The sector has been blamed for excess deaths, made out to look incompetent when this is not the case, and there are now calls for all those who are vulnerable to COVID-19 to be ‘locked away’ so the rest of us can go back to normal.
Again, many seem to think this would mean all older people – and I would suggest that confining all older people to their homes so that other people can drink freely at the pub is a bad enough idea in itself. But there’s another side to this argument that would see people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s isolated and alone. And for how long?
When I’ve spoken to people who suggest that this approach would work, this isn’t something they’ve considered. Already a marginalised part of society, people with disabilities are once again being forgotten. This is yet another thing that might make them not want to go out into their communities, to engage in and live the lives they want.
RAISING VOICES
This month, we spoke to disability rights campaigner and contributor to Saba Salman’s book, Made Possible, Shaun Webster MBE about how lockdown impacted him personally and professionally, what it meant to him that the media didn’t – and doesn’t – talk about people with disabilities, and how he has coped with it all. Read what he had to say on page 24.
We’re also looking at a new research project being undertaken by The Open University and Oxford University on page 34. It is looking at better ways to support people who have learning disabled adult children, and the services that are needed to help people plan with confidence.
So, if you, like me, unfortunately know people who feel that locking away the vulnerable is an acceptable response to COVID-19, feel free to send them here to give them at least a small insight into the people who would be devastated by such a decision. Let’s not allow ageism and discrimination to persevere just because we have to drink our G&Ts at home after 10pm for now.
Email: editor@caremanagementmatters.co.uk Twitter: @CMM_Magazine Web: www.caremanagementmatters.co.uk
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