An Australian disability organisation has launched its own COVID-19 vaccination campaign for staff in a bid to keep vulnerable clients safe.
Achieve Australia says despite promising priority access to COVID-19 vaccinations in early announcements, there has been no recent communication from governments about the plans to vaccinate people with disability and the people who support them in community.
“For families of people with disability this is unacceptable, as their loved ones are at greater risk of contracting the virus and suffering potentially life-threatening health complications if they do,” says Achieve Australia Chief Executive, Jo-Anne Hewitt.
Achieve Australia is an NDIS-registered provider and delivers disability support services in greater Sydney and the Northern Rivers regions of NSW.
“There is widespread frustration amongst staff and the disability sector that the government’s promise 18 months ago to arrange early mass vaccinations for those working with vulnerable people, including people with disability, has not materialised.”
Ms Hewitt says a lack of community vaccination nationally means organisations like Achieve are still operating with a high level of precaution that directly impacts the quality of life for clients who are isolating to stay safe from COVID when there are high numbers of community transmission.
Achieve Australia, like many other disability service providers, has been strongly promoting staff vaccination for months. When it became clear the sector wasn’t having access prioritised, it decided to launch its own dedicated internal vaccination campaign, she says.
“The government is not going to come to our worksites to get everybody vaccinated. We must be our own champions and take responsibility for getting vaccinated ourselves,” says Ms Hewitt.
“Our campaign encourages all staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect themselves, our clients, and our colleagues from COVID. Since we launched our internal campaign earlier this week, we have seen a significant increase in the number of staff vaccinated which is encouraging.”
Gabrielle Goodenough and her sister, Carmen, are particularly concerned for the health and social impact delays in vaccinating people with disability will have. Their brother Luciano (pictured, above) lives in supported independent living and struggles to understand why his life has been so impacted over the past 18 months of the pandemic.
Mrs Goodenough said they put faith in governments to make decisions about the whole community, so were initially pleased to see people with disability were categorised as the most vulnerable, and therefore a priority.
“We trusted the government to look after our brother but clearly, we were wrong. We do not understand how they could organise medical personnel to go into nursing homes and vaccinate the clients there but have let the disability sector down so badly,” says Ms Goodenough.
“Our brother and others he lives with (20 people on the property) are still not vaccinated, despite all the false promises the government have made. My brother doesn’t understand ‘social distancing’. He and his housemates need the comfort and security of being vaccinated in the comfort of their own homes surrounded by the staff who know and care for them. This is a massive failure of government to not have looked after our people. How could they be so cruel?” she says.
“We encourage the community to continue to share their concerns relating to the COVID vaccination rollout with their local state and federal member, and to make sure they register for vaccination. To protect our most vulnerable we need the community at large to get vaccinated,” says Ms Hewitt.
