International Day for Persons with Disabilities – December 3, 2022
Today is the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). The theme chosen by the United Nations for IDPD 2022 is “transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world”. At Realize we believe that “innovation” and “transformative solutions” must begin with recognition.
In Canada, we have made progress in broadening the definition of disability, but there is still work to do to ensure that every person in Canada experiencing disability has their disability recognized when it comes to social supports, inclusion, and employment.
Calgary-based nurse, Shari Ingalls, describes her experience of Long COVID, work and her fight to have her condition recognized as a disability.
Increasing numbers of people in Canada (over 2 million people in a pre-COVID estimate) live with ongoing episodic disabilities. These include disabilities related to HIV, multiple sclerosis, lupus, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and mental health conditions, amongst others.
Episodic disabilities are chronic health conditions characterized by fluctuating periods and degrees of illness and wellness. These periods can be unpredictable in duration, types of symptoms and frequency of recurrence. The unpredictable nature of episodic disabilities can lead to many challenges for people living with these conditions. It can have a negative impact on meaningful community participation, employment, income security, social inclusion, and access to care.
These challenges are amplified when the nature of people’s disabilities is misunderstood or goes unrecognized. This is one of the significant barriers faced today by people experiencing the complexities of Long COVID.
At a time when people are struggling with ill health, they have had to become personal advocates, and information leaders just to have their conditions recognized and accepted as disability. (This is a struggle that people with other disabling conditions have also experienced.)
Realize has been working with people in the long COVID community across Canada as they fight to gain recognition of their condition as an episodic disability and gain access to care and social supports. We have focused particularly on what Long COVID means for people when it comes to employment and their experiences in the workplace.
Today, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we are pleased to officially launch a new resource, “Recommendations for Employers, Insurers, Human Resource Personnel and Rehabilitation Professionals on Return to Work for People Living with Long COVID”.
This guidance document is a collaboration between Realize, Long COVID Physio, Canadian Physiotherapy Association, and the Rehabilitation Science Research Network for COVID, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
It is a living document that will be continually updated based on emerging evidence in the field. The document includes hyperlinks throughout to additional resources and websites.
Our goal is to ease the path of people living with Long COVID in returning to work – through recognition, understanding of workplace best practices and an informed community of employers, insurers, human resource personnel and rehabilitation professionals.
You can find additional Realize resources on Long COVID and employment here.
Realize offers online courses for human resource professionals, managers and people living with episodic disabilities focused on key issues like: Accommodating Workplaces: Episodic Disabilities and Leading Practices at Work, Understanding and Supporting Employees with Episodic Disabilities, Working with an Episodic Disability in the Context of COVID-19 and more.