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Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa

Organisations have long played an effective role in advocating for and actioning crucial developmental and humanitarian functions around the world, often under challenging conditions, as well as servicing the health needs of persons with disabilities. This article reports on the experiences of organ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hlongwane, Naomi, Ned, Lieketseng, McKinney, Emma, McKinney, Vic, Swartz, Leslie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9564470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231940
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912641
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author Hlongwane, Naomi
Ned, Lieketseng
McKinney, Emma
McKinney, Vic
Swartz, Leslie
author_facet Hlongwane, Naomi
Ned, Lieketseng
McKinney, Emma
McKinney, Vic
Swartz, Leslie
author_sort Hlongwane, Naomi
collection PubMed
description Organisations have long played an effective role in advocating for and actioning crucial developmental and humanitarian functions around the world, often under challenging conditions, as well as servicing the health needs of persons with disabilities. This article reports on the experiences of organisations of (or that serve) persons with disabilities, hereafter called service providers, during the COVID-19 lockdown period in South Africa beginning 26 March 2020. Organisations participated in an online survey as well as virtual narrative interviews to voice out their experiences. Five major themes emerged: (1) difficulties in keeping the doors open; (2) continued care under lockdown; (3) restructuring of care (4) government systems and policies; and (5) reaching out to offer and receive support. The findings demonstrate that the South African government failed to ensure targeted support to organisations of persons with disabilities. A remarkable feature of the organisations we interviewed for this small study was their agility in responding creatively to the challenges they faced, despite the difficulties. There is a need for government support to include targeted efforts to support organisation of persons with disabilities during pandemics to avoid worsening service gaps.
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spelling pubmed-95644702022-10-15 Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa Hlongwane, Naomi Ned, Lieketseng McKinney, Emma McKinney, Vic Swartz, Leslie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Organisations have long played an effective role in advocating for and actioning crucial developmental and humanitarian functions around the world, often under challenging conditions, as well as servicing the health needs of persons with disabilities. This article reports on the experiences of organisations of (or that serve) persons with disabilities, hereafter called service providers, during the COVID-19 lockdown period in South Africa beginning 26 March 2020. Organisations participated in an online survey as well as virtual narrative interviews to voice out their experiences. Five major themes emerged: (1) difficulties in keeping the doors open; (2) continued care under lockdown; (3) restructuring of care (4) government systems and policies; and (5) reaching out to offer and receive support. The findings demonstrate that the South African government failed to ensure targeted support to organisations of persons with disabilities. A remarkable feature of the organisations we interviewed for this small study was their agility in responding creatively to the challenges they faced, despite the difficulties. There is a need for government support to include targeted efforts to support organisation of persons with disabilities during pandemics to avoid worsening service gaps. MDPI 2022-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9564470/ /pubmed/36231940 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912641 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hlongwane, Naomi
Ned, Lieketseng
McKinney, Emma
McKinney, Vic
Swartz, Leslie
Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title_full Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title_fullStr Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title_short Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa
title_sort experiences of organisations of (or that serve) persons with disabilities during the covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown period in south africa
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9564470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231940
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912641
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