Blog: When you ’re the wrong sort of ‘vulnerable’

I’ve been a local government worker and a UNISON member for 15 years. I have cerebral palsy and arthritis, which means I sometimes struggle to walk and to communicate. I had a stroke five years ago and I’m more susceptible to infection. If I got COVID-19, I dread to think what might happen. But the government don’t seem to care about my individual circumstances. Instead, they have divided disabled people into two new groups – extremely vulnerable people and vulnerable people.  Only extremely vulnerable people were told to shield. Apparently, I’m just plain old vulnerable. I’m not extremely vulnerable, according to the government. I don’t trust this government and I wasn’t about to take any risks with my health. So I took the decision to shield anyway. I stayed at home throughout lockdown and went out as little as possible. But because I’m in the just-plain-old-vulnerable category I wasn’t entitled to food deliveries and I got no help during lockdown. Thank goodness I had my mum to support me. But many disabled people won’t have had anyone to help. Lots of UNISON disabled members are in the same boat as me. They have underlying conditions, but the government has said they aren’t extremely vulnerable so they don’t need to shield. They’ve ended up prisoners in their own homes, scared to leave the house and relying on family and friends for help. Prisoners in their own homes Dividing us into vulnerable and extremely vulnerable also meant employers con...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article Covid-19 disabled members Source Type: news