In emergencies, the disabled still forgotten
Spinal Cord Resources Network has been reporting on the total inability of counties, states and federal agencies to help the disabled in times of emergencies for years. After working closely with Florida officials we had made some headway but much work had to be done. We had hoped that other groups working with other states were able to get more help for the disabled. Not surprising, we have found an article on the Washington TImes which outlines the problems faced by the disabled in an emergency. The bottom line is there is no planning for the disabled so there is no way of transporting them out of the danger area, service dogs are sent to the dog pound to die, wheelchairs are sent to local dumps and emergency shelter has no way of handling a disabled person. So expect to be stuck in a mobile home without ramps or even doorways wide enough to move a wheelchair through.
Things are just as screwed up during the emergency. The Red Cross all out REFUSES to help the disabled transfer from wheelchairs to beds. Good luck of you need help getting into the bathroom. There are many documented cases of people in wheelchairs defecating on themselves because no one will help them into the bathroom. Even though it is the law of the land to help the disabled through the ADA, and there is even documentation from the federal government on how to work with the disabled, the Red Cross says the law does not apply to them. This could be fixed by the states and counties that pay the Red Cross to help those after an emergency by forcing them to follow the law or stop using them. But that never happens. The counties and states do not want to police the groups that supposedly help the public after a hurricane so groups like the Red Cross get paid to do little more than hand out cold coffee and bags of ice.
Many people don’t hear about this because it is impossible to force groups like the Red Cross to do their jobs during the emergency. A hurricane is on it’s way and they refuse to let you on the bus. So you have to make a decision – scream at them to follow the ADA and be left behind, or let them get you out of there. But the transportation means your service dog is left behind along with your wheelchair. SInce the Red Cross doesn’t have the facilities to take care of the disabled, they send you off to a nursing home that does not have the staff to keep you safe. The disabled end up with bed sores which sends them off to hospitals for weeks on end to fix these problems. After getting out of the hospital you now have to fight with your insurance company to get a new wheelchair because your old one was left at the bus stop and was washed away during the storm. Then you get to take weeks searching for your service dog which hopefully was picked up by one of the animal control groups that hopefully has a no-kill policy. It is not unusual to spend two to three months searching animal shelters before you find your dog again.
For those that end up in a shelter, the deaf find it impossible to find out what is going on or what facilities are available to them. There are documented cases of the deaf starving in shelters because no one let them know that food was available and where to get it. They are not told up to the minute new stories so they don’t know the severity of a storm or when they can go home. There are no facilities for the deaf to make phone calls to their families to let them know they are safe. But the able bodied are allowed to make those same phone calls. Note that there are counties that have agreed to hire sign language translators so that the deaf have someone to converse with and tell them what is going on. But it isn’t everyone and money is not a reason to leave the deaf to starve in the dark. The ADA has guidelines that are republished by the federal government on what to do for the deaf community, but those documents are typically tossed aside and ignored.
As long as no one sues there is little reason to change how things are done. The newly disabled think that they can just go to a shelter and be handled as anyone else and get the help they need. It is giant surprise when they call and find out they are not welcome in the shelter and will be sent either home or to the hospital. Upon getting to the hospital, they find that most hospitals will not take the disabled because they cost too much. Nurses and doctors need to be present to help with bowel programs and to dispense medication like blood pressure and insulin to the disabled. That all costs money that the hospital doesn’t want to pay – even if the ADA says they must do this because even accessibility is guaranteed. So the disabled are then sent to special needs which typically won;t take anyone that is quadriplegic or has chronic pain because they don’t have medics, nurses, or doctors willing to transfer or give medication to those individuals. So you get to go home. the most dangerous place with no help because the nursing staff is home with their families. One hopes their houses don’t collapse during storms or tornadoes. Bottom line is the disabled are left to their own devices to stay alive while the able bodied are well taken care of by the governmental infrastructure. Our tax dollars hard at work.
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