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The impact of COVID-19 on disabled people in Northern Ireland

FITZSIMONS, Sean
O'NEILL, Emma
CRAWFORD, Alison
September 2020

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Key findings and recommendations are reported from an online survey published in April 2020 to gather the experiences of disabled people, their families and carers during the COVID-19 outbreak in Northern Ireland. The survey went live on April 1st 2020 and closed on April 30th 2020.  Over 400 survey responses were received, including over 1300 written statements. 

Key findings are reported in the areas of: social care; physical health; mental health and emotional wellbeing; carers; accessing food and medicine; accessing information; employment and training; social security benefits and community support

Activity limitations and participation restrictions in people with multiple sclerosis: a detailed 10-year perspective

CONRADSSON, David
YTTERBERD+G, Charlotte
ENGELKES, Catharina
JOHANSSON, Sverker
GOTTBERG, Kristina
June 2019

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Aim: To conduct a detailed investigation into changes in activity limitations and participation restrictions over 10 years in people with mild, moderate and severe multiple sclerosis.

 

Methods: This study was a 10-year longitudinal study of 264 people with multiple sclerosis living in Stockholm County, Sweden. Ten-year changes in personal and instrumental activities in daily living were assessed using the Katz Activities in Daily Living Index Extended and participation in social/lifestyle activities using the Frenchay Activities Index.

 

Results: While people with moderate multiple sclerosis, compared to baseline, demonstrated significantly higher proportions of dependency in most activities of personal and instrumental activities in daily living at the 10-year follow-up, the mild group primarily increased their dependency in instrumental activities and the severe group in personal activities. Significantly higher proportions of the moderate group showed restricted participation in domestic and outdoor activities whereas the mild group only showed restrictions in a few domains of participation. A majority of people with severe multiple sclerosis showed restricted participation in all social/lifestyle activities at baseline and the 10-year follow-up.

 

Conclusions: Prominent long-term increases in activity limitations and participation restrictions occurred across the spectrum of disease severity but was most pronounced in those more moderately affected.

National approaches to promote sports and physical activity in adults with disabilities: examples from the Netherlands and Canada

HOEKSTRA, Femke
ROBERTS, Lynn
VAN LINDERT, Caroline
MARTIN GINIS, Kathleen A
VAN DER WOUDE, Lucas H V
MCCOLL, Mary Ann
January 2018

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Purpose: This study described how the Dutch and Canadian governments promote high performance sports, recreational sports, and physical activity (PA) among adults with disabilities on a national level.

 

Methods: An internet-based study was conducted to identify and select relevant documents and websites containing information about the national approach to promote disability sports and physical activities in the Netherlands and Canada.

 

Results: Both governments promote high performance sports in similar ways, but use different strategies to promote recreational sports and physical activities. The Dutch approach is characterized by using time-limited programs focusing on enhancement of sports infrastructure and inter-sector collaboration in which municipalities have key roles. The Canadian government promotes recreational sports in disabled populations by supporting programs via bilateral agreements with provinces and territories. Furthermore, the level of integration of disability sports into mainstream sports differs between countries.

 

Conclusions: The findings of this study may inspire policy makers from different countries to learn from one another’s policies in order to optimize national approaches to promote disability sports and PA on all levels.

Public health, research and rights: the perspectives of deliberation panels with politically and socially active disabled people

BERGHS, Maria
ATKIN, Karl
GRAHAM, Hilary
HATTON, Chris
THOMAS, Carol
2017

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Public health research purports to provide the evidence base for policies, programmes and interventions to improve the health of a population. However, there is increasing awareness that the experiences of disabled people have played little part in informing this evidence base. This paper discusses one aspect of a study commissioned by England’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to review the implications for public health of theories and models of disability. This part of the study focused on the development of a tool or decision aid to promote ethical inclusion of disabled people in public health randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and evaluative research. The tool was introduced at four regional ‘deliberating panels’ involving politically and socially active disabled people. In addition, we held a panel with public health professionals. The deliberation panels debated how the focus of public health was narrowing, why disability was excluded and positive and negative issues with using rights to guide research and evaluative practice. Politically active disabled people argued for a social model of human rights to guide any rights based tools or decision aids in public health and disability research.

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