More than half of the persons with disabilities said their families have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at economic and social levels, shows a study carried out by the Alliance of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities of the Republic of Moldova and Keystone Human Services International Moldova. Almost 50% of the persons with disabilities said they do not have access to information about the pandemic, while 51% said they felt generally more nervous in the period. The economic crisis, loss of revenues, quarantine, the health system that can fail to cope with the demand and the loss of a close person are among the fears experienced by over 70% of the persons with disabilities during the pandemic.
In a news conference at IPN, the Alliance’s executive director Galina Klimov said that a number of research instruments have been used within the study, such as online questionnaires and questioning by phone among 257 respondents and focus groups that involved over 36 civil society organizations from urban and rural areas. There were also analyzed the calls to the free telephonic assistance service intended for persons with disabilities and the official information provided by the authorities.
Ludmila Malcoci, executive director of the public association Keystone Moldova, said that among the fears faced by over 70% of the persons with disabilities during the pandemic are the economic crisis, loss of incomes, quarantine and others. 81% of those surveyed didn’t contact a doctor, a psychologist or the hotline to discuss their psychological state in the period. 27% said they felt ignored by the authorities in the period, while 38% said they felt the need to talk to someone about their psychological discomfort.
More than half of the respondents said their families were affected by the pandemic at economic and social levels. 36% of those questioned said the salary incomes decreased considerably in their families together with the stopping/reduction of work. More than one third (37%) of those polled said they don’t expect to lose their job, while 26% don’t know if they will lose the job in the immediate period.
Among the biggest difficulties encountered by the persons with disabilities during the pandemic are the use of public transport – 76%, fear and isolation – 73%, access to medical services – 68%, reduction or loss of incomes – 64% and access to social services – 60%.
Keystone Moldova Program Director Parascovia Munteanu noted that most of the times the persons with disabilities that used the telephonic assistance service said they were affected by the halt in the scheduling of appointments for specialized health services and for medical examinations for confirming the disability degree. The lack of access to rehabilitation services and assistive or prosthetic services was another problem. The persons with disabilities, especially those with mental health problems, were affected by the lack of medicines in drugstores. The callers also mentioned the lack of protective materials in residential institutions and poor conditions in psychiatric hospitals where persons with disabilities with COVID-19 are treated.
The persons who used the assistance service also invoked problems related to insufficient and unclear information about the procedure for challenging fines or penalties received during the state of emergency, the limited capacities of employees of placement services for managing behavioral problems, states of anxiety, fear and aggression on the part of persons with disabilities and stopping of access to information and communication with persons from outside the institution.
