Community supports for those at home in the Covid-19 crisis
“Stay Safe, Stay Home”
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing has made a list of useful numbers: StayHomeStaySafe
Resources during Covid-19
Children:
The Department of Education and Skills has prepared information about Talking to children and young people about COVID-19 (pdf).
Community Groups:
COVID-19 Government Action Plan to support the community response.
COVID-19 Posters/Videos English & Irish, available here.
To support the community response to COVID-19 the DRCD have developed a suite of leaflets about volunteering, on supporting communities and advice during this time. Find out more here.
Irish Rural Link have prepared a useful ‘Protocol for Community Groups and Volunteers in delivering services’ during COVID19. Access the protocol here.
Essential Services:
Galway County Council has updated its provision of services during COVID-19.
Housing:
Emergency measures were announced on 19 March 2020 to protect tenants who have been impacted by COVID-19.
Immigration:
Immigration permissions during COVID-19 have changed. Immigration Services Division has a list of frequently asked questions about these changes.
Information:
HSE (Health Service Executive) COVID-19 updates available here.
HPSC (Health Protection Surveillance Centre) – Guidance for healthcare professionals on COVID-19 available here.
Government of Ireland (Gov.ie) COVID-19 – Latest Updates available here.
Mental Health
List of Mental Health Supports from HSE.ie, available here.
Advice on Minding your Mental Health during the outbreak available here.
Jigsaw Resource to Coping with the impact from Corona Virus.
Online and phone supports: Face-to-face interaction may be limited during this period. There are many online mental health resources and phone services that can help. Check here.
Older People:
Information on supports for older people during the coronavirus pandemic.
Older people who have questions or concerns can contact:
- ALONE helpline on 0818 222 014
- Senior helpline on 1800 804 591
Advice for the elderly and those who need supports- Advice during COVID-19.
Information on how to guard against fraud and generate trust-Protecting against fraud.
Social Security:
If you have lost your job, or been laid off because of COVID-19, you can apply for the COVID-19 Unemployment Payment.
How to nominate a temporary agent to collect DEASP payments: An Post Temporary Agent Form
On 19 March 2020, DEASP announced that social welfare payments will paid on a double (two-week) basis. You can find out more about these changes.
The DEASP also have a dedicated COVID-19 Income Support Helpline (open from 9am-5pm, 01-2481398 / 1890-800-024.
All of our updates, contacts, links & info here.
Find out more about your employment rights during the COVID-19 restrictions.
Travel:
If you are planning to travel abroad, you should follow the travel advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Volunteering:
Advice for those who want to volunteer- How can I volunteer in response to COVID-19?
‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of volunteering – Sensible volunteering in response to COVID-19
‘How can we get volunteers’? – Advice on the recruitment of volunteers for community groups.
If you are well enough and would like to volunteer, or are looking for volunteers, in response to COVID19 please register with Volunteer Centre Galway.
COVID-19 in the News
Information on Covid-19 can be found on HSE website. If you have recently travelled from an affected area or want information about coronavirus, go to their coronavirus page.
900 ventilators ordered for use in Covid-19 pandemic. The Health Service Executive has said that 900 new ventilators have been ordered for use with patients with Covid-19 and some of those will be delivered by the end of the month. That is in … www.rte.ie 10 Positive Updates on the COVID-19 Outbreaks From Around the World
If it seems that your news feed has been flooded with nerve-wracking updates on the COVID-19 outbreaks, have no fear—there are also plenty of positive updates on the pandemic as well. So without … www.goodnewsnetwork.org
Solidarity is spreading as the COVID-19 crisis continues | World Economic Forum Local councils in Wales are recruiting “an army of volunteers” to keep in contact with neighbours who are most at risk and to go shopping for them. In Oxford, England, volunteers have set up the Help Hub to offer online support and reassurance to vulnerable people who are self-isolating. And, in the United States, artist Yadesa Bojia produced Facebook videos translating official … www.weforum.org
Fergus Finlay: Resilience and responsible actions will see us through Covid-19 crisis As we get closer to the peak of the crisis, we will each have to take more personal responsibility, writes Fergus Finlay. People masked up in Dublin as Covid-19 contiues to effect life on a quiet … www.irishexaminer.com
Launch of a Family Carer (online) Support Group
In light of the curtailment of many face-to-face Family Carer support services, and following extensive feedback, Care Alliance Ireland has set up an online Family Carer Support Group.
Open to all Family Carers living in the Republic of Ireland, this new online private group will be facilitated by a number of professionals with social work and counselling qualifications, moderation experience and will be supported by a number of former and current family carers who have stepped forward to volunteer.
The objectives of the group are as follows:
-
- mitigate the impact of the sudden withdrawal of face-to-face support services that has occurred in recent days,
- provide a safe virtual space for family carers to seek reassurance, ask questions, receive peer support and contain raised anxiety
- encourage members to consider and create a back-up plan should they fall ill.
As of this morning (Wednesday 18 March), the group is now up and running at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FamilyCarerOnlineSupportGroupIreland/
This will be delivered through the Facebook platform, in a closed/private group format. Users will need a Facebook account to participate.
The following steps are required to join the group;
- Login to your Facebook Page
(To set up Facebook account check here)
- Go to our Facebook Page Group available here.
- Ask to Join the group
You will then be asked three questions:
- Are you living in the Republic of Ireland?
- Are you providing unpaid care to a family member or friend in their home due to an illness, disability or frailty?
- Will you adhere to the group rules, specifically with respect to protecting the privacy of the person you are caring for?
Requests to join will be reviewed by the group administrators (Care Alliance Ireland staff), and subject to applicants replying yes to the three questions, they will be allowed to join the group.
Other info:
Our group of 2 staff and 10 volunteers have been discussing group facilitation, content, moderation, etc over the past number of days and are confident that we can provide meaningful support.
We are aware of the privacy concerns that may exist. We have put in place clear Group rules and have modeled these on the very successful Special Needs Parents Association private Facebook Group that has been in operation for several years.
Furthermore, we have managed a specific Facebook page for the past 8 years – NationalCarersWeek. It has over 20,000 followers, 75% report being current and or former family carers, see here.
Please consider sharing news about this page with the families you work with.
COVID-19 Information for Families and Communities
The ILN are conscious of the extra stress facing many family members with regard to supporting their family during the current crisis.
Some families face a reduction in formal supports, closure of schools, loss of employment and reduced income.
We hope to provide important updates and supports for you during this time.
Resources during Covid-19:
Children:
The Department of Education and Skills has prepared information about Talking to children and young people about COVID-19 (pdf).
Community Groups:
COVID-19 Government Action Plan to support the community response.
COVID-19 Posters/Videos English & Irish, available here.
To support the community response to COVID-19 the DRCD have developed a suite of leaflets about volunteering, on supporting communities and advice during this time. Find out more here.
Irish Rural Link have prepared a useful ‘Protocol for Community Groups and Volunteers in delivering services’ during COVID19. Access the protocol here.
Essential Services:
Galway County Council has updated its provision of services during COVID-19.
Housing:
Emergency measures were announced on 19 March 2020 to protect tenants who have been impacted by COVID-19.
Immigration:
Immigration permissions during COVID-19 have changed. Immigration Services Division has a list of frequently asked questions about these changes.
Information:
HSE (Health Service Executive) COVID-19 updates available here.
HPSC (Health Protection Surveillance Centre) – Guidance for healthcare professionals on COVID-19 available here.
Government of Ireland (Gov.ie) COVID-19 – Latest Updates available here.
Mental Health:
List of Mental Health Supports from HSE.ie, available here.
Advice on Minding your Mental Health during the outbreak available here.
Jigsaw Resource to Coping with the impact from Corona Virus.
Online and phone supports: Face-to-face interaction may be limited during this period. There are many online mental health resources and phone services that can help. Check here.
Older People:
Information on supports for older people during the coronavirus pandemic.
Older people who have questions or concerns can contact:
- ALONE helpline on 0818 222 014
- Senior helpline on 1800 804 591
Advice for the elderly and those who need supports- Advice during COVID-19.
Information on how to guard against fraud and generate trust-Protecting against fraud.
Social Security:
If you have lost your job, or been laid off because of COVID-19, you can apply for the COVID-19 Unemployment Payment.
How to nominate a temporary agent to collect DEASP payments: An Post Temporary Agent Form
On 19 March 2020, DEASP announced that social welfare payments will paid on a double (two-week) basis. You can find out more about these changes.
The DEASP also have a dedicated COVID-19 Income Support Helpline (open from 9am-5pm, 01-2481398 / 1890-800-024.
All of our updates, contacts, links & info here.
Find out more about your employment rights during the COVID-19 restrictions.
Travel:
If you are planning to travel abroad, you should follow the travel advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Volunteering:
Advice for those who want to volunteer- How can I volunteer in response to COVID-19?
‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of volunteering – Sensible volunteering in response to COVID-19
‘How can we get volunteers’? – Advice on the recruitment of volunteers for community groups.
If you are well enough and would like to volunteer, or are looking for volunteers, in response to COVID19 please register with Volunteer Centre Galway.
Community – A Disability Perspective
By Sean McGrath
Synopsis: Community can have a profoundly positive impact on people living with disability but current structures and vocabulary needs rethinking.
3 Key Takeaways:
-
- 1 in 7 people in Ireland live with a disability and most of them acquired that disability at some stage in their lives. Any person who is disability-free today may have a life-long disability starting tomorrow. That is a fact of life.
- Once you have a disability, “community” is a much harder thing to access for a whole host of reasons ranging from physical access to prejudice. For people with intellectual disabilities – be they congenital or acquired – it is even harder still.
- In endeavoring to support people with intellectual disabilities, we as a society, take away the very things we ourselves most cherish in our lives. Most of these things come about through, and because of, community.
According to the WHO about 15% of the worlds population lives with some form of disability. According to the National Disability Authority of Ireland, 1 in 7 people in Ireland has a disability. That’s about 13%.
It may come as a surprise to learn that the majority of that 1-in-7 number represents acquired disabilities. i.e. once healthy people who became disabled people at some point in their lives. It can happen to any of us at any time and will happen to a goodly proportion of us at some time in our lives.
For anyone living with a disability “community” often means something very different than what it means to the rest of the population. For people with intellectual/cognitive disabilities – be they congenital or acquired (e.g. brain injuries, dementia etc.) – the difference is often even more striking. Once you have a disability, “community” is a much harder thing to access for a whole host of reasons ranging from physical access to prejudice.
Let us play a game. Let us pretend for a moment that I have control over your future life. Now, think about the five most important things in your life in order of priority. The things you think of as the good things in life. The things that really make life worth living. Possible entries on your prioritised list include money, vacations, health, family, a job you enjoy, independence, better looks, friends, a place to call your own. etc.
Now, what if I tell you that I am taking away two of them. What two do you want to give up out of the five? Not easy it is? Take a moment…
Which three did you decide to keep and which did you decide to give up?
I’ll bet you chose not to keep the vacations or the money-related items. I’ll bet you chose to keep family, a soul mate, your independence, friends, a place to call your own. Am I right?
Now here is the two part kicker of this thought experiment. Firstly, the very things you chose to keep above all else, are the very things we as a society tend to take away from people with intellectual disabilities. Secondly, those very things you chose to keep above all else, are found mostly in, and through, community.
For people with an intellectual disability, we take the word “community” and we redefine it. We label it “special needs” and until very recently we even used that abhorrent word “retarded”. We segregate these people from the rest of the population. We congregate these people into institutions “for their own good”. Sure, we see the odd “special bus”. We see the odd group of “special needs” going bowling at 11 a.m. on a Monday morning, but mostly we don’t see them at all. They do not live in our communities. They are not living with us.
We take away from them the very things we hold most dearly for ourselves. Do people with intellectual difficulties not value friends? Do they not value being able to make decisions for themselves? Have a place to call “home”? Of course they do but we mostly take these things away from them. We apply a so called “medical model” in supporting them. We keep them safe above all else. Quality of life? Less of a concern
This is tragic. All the more so because it is an unintended side-effect of mostly well meaning people and systems that have evolved over centuries. Thankfully, change is afoot in Ireland – albeit very slowly.
The HSE’s New Directions policy[1] sets out a vision for how the lives of people living with intellectual disabilities can be transformed through community integration and through decongregation[2].
Ireland has finally enacted the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities[3] and has begun rolling out the Assisted Decision Making Act[4].
Grass roots initiatives are afoot such as the Inclusive Living Network [4] which aims at informing and supporting people living with disabilities to live their lives the way the “rest of us” want to live ours : in communities, accessing the simple things in life that are worth more than any amount of money to all of us.
[1] https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/disability/newdirections/
[2] https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/disability/congregatedsettings/
[3] http://www.inclusionireland.ie/content/page/united-nations-and-disability
[4] https://www.findersinternational.ie/news/lunacy-act-replaced-assisted-decision-making-provisions/
[5] https://inclusivelivingnetwork.ie/
About Sean McGrath:
Sean McGrath is a 35+ year veteran of the IT industry. He holds a first class honours degree in computer science from Trinity College Dublin. He is co-founder and CTO of Propylon, where he now heads up the R+D group focusing on computational solutions in the legal and regulatory domains. He is the author of three books on markup languages published by Prentice Hall and has lectured in Trinity College Dublin and with the Open University. He runs one of Ireland’s longest lived blogs at: seanmcgrath.blogspot.com. Sean lives in Galway with his wife and three children. When not working in IT he is an avid amateur musician.
