INSILC Releases Guide on COVID-19 Vaccinations and Home & Community Care
Immediate Release – November 12, 2021
Contact Information:
Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council
844.446.7452
INSILC Releases Guide on COVID-19 Vaccinations and Home & Community Care
As Hoosiers with disabilities, we know and understand how COVID-19 has and continues to impact Hoosiers in our disability community differently than other Hoosier citizens. We see and feel the strain it is placing on our public systems, compromising our healthcare and limiting our access to supports in our home, education, employment, and transportation services.
As our country and state have “opened up”, many of us continue to stay home to remain safe while a few of us have started re-entering the workforce, utilizing public transportation, and engaging in community spaces only to retreat back to our homes every time there is a spike or resurgence in COVID-19 cases. For those of us who have become housing insecure during the pandemic, the fear of infection (and potential death) is constant. We are frightened that what little choice and control we currently have over our lives, may be in jeopardy. The risk of institutionalization has never been more real.
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, INSILC created resources for our peers with disabilities to utilize when navigating our often prejudicial, discriminatory, ableist healthcare system. These documents can be found in multiple languages and accessible formats at: https://www.insilc.org/covid-19/.
Today, we are sharing a new resource to help our peers navigate the ongoing pandemic – the INSILC Guide on COVID-19 Vaccinations and Home & Community Care. The information in this resource is specific to COVID-19 vaccinations and home and community care providers or staff entering our homes. Many of us require home and community supports/services to survive and thrive and be meaningfully integrated in society. As a result, more individuals come into our homes and spaces automatically putting us at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. But when individuals providing us these supports/services enter our homes unvaccinated, it significantly increases this risk.
Majority of us utilizing home and community supports/services are vaccinated mitigating the risk of contracting COVID-19 and the likelihood of dying from the virus if we do. However, there are several of us whose disabilities and pre-existing conditions prevent us from being vaccinated. And, being vaccinated is no guarantee our immune systems will be as resilient which may impact the effectiveness of the vaccine. Therefore, we often need to take additional precautionary measures to ensure our health and safety. One such measure is asking and knowing if the people entering our homes are vaccinated.
But how do we do we do this or find out this information? What right(s) do we have to ask if someone entering our home is vaccinated in order to protect ourselves and remain as healthy and safe as possible?
To answer these questions, INSILC developed the INSILC Guide on COVID-19 Vaccinations and Home & Community Care to support our peers navigating through these tricky and often uncomfortable scenarios. We hope you find this guide to be informative and a useful and empowering tool!
Much Love and Solidarity,
The INSILC Team
To meet the various accessibility needs of our disability community, the guide is on our website (www.INSILC.org/covid-19) in PDF, plain text, standard print, large print, and Spanish. If you require the guide in another format or language, please contact us – we’d be happy to provide this accommodation!
###
Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council (INSILC) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and governor-appointed council, independent and autonomous from the state. INSILC is led and directed by a majority of diverse Hoosier leaders with disabilities. The Council addresses needs and concerns of the disability community ensuring no decisions that impact us are made without our input and direction. INSILC provides oversight of the Indiana State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) and the coordination of services with public and private entities to improve services provided to its peers with disabilities. INSILC use its platform to advocate for meaningful change within the disability community and provide opportunities to empower its peers with disabilities to #BeTheVoice to lead and control their own lives.