Tag: healthcare inequities
Time Lost to Disability Management is a Health Inequity
by: Annie Carver, Esq.
“Health inequities are difference in health status or the distribution of health resources between different populations or groups arising from the social condition in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.” There are many health inequities that are associated with disability – caused by stigma, discrimination, poverty, exclusion from education and employment, and other barriers within the healthcare system. One health inequity that is rarely named for people with disabilities is lost time, or the time cost associated with being disabled. There is a time cost associated with navigating welfare and healthcare systems, coordinating medical care, and managing personal care and symptoms. On top of that, public inaccessibility and legal barriers isolate disabled people from their greater community; therefore, disabled people often have to navigate the complicated coordination of their care without the support system that many non-disabled people enjoy. These time barriers also tend to disproportionately impact those with multiply marginalized identities, particularly people of color and queer people.
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The Paradoxical Perspective on Paxlovid
By Tracy Waller, Esq., MPH
“If it’s COVID, Paxlovid.” Or is it? Pfizer launched its most recent commercial for Paxlovid in February 2023 and has gone full throttle into its advertisement of the drug. Pfizer first received Emergency Use Authorization (“EUA”) for Paxlovid in December 2021 and then received a revised EUA in February 2023. The commercial touts the drug as a “miracle” drug of sorts. On November 6, 2022, the Office of Veterans Affairs released a study showing that Paxlovid can reduce the risk of symptoms of long COVID. Pfizer includes in its commercial for the drug, as required, that certain classes of people are excluded from taking Paxlovid based on negative drug interactions; however, the gravity of the number of people who are ineligible to take the drug is not readily apparent and leaves large swaths of the United States’ (“US”) and global populations without access to this life-saving drug. The lack of access to Paxlovid for the people most vulnerable to COVID-19- the elderly, people with disabilities, and other immunocompromised people – emphasizes the need for pharmaceutical companies to focus on developing treatment options that meet the needs of so many of those left behind.
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To Better Understand Intersectionality and Health Justice, Look to the Experiences of People Living With HIV
By: Tyler Cochran, JD
Due to incredible, cutting edge advancements in antiretroviral therapies that treat HIV, and pre-exposure prophylactics that reduce transmission rates, people living with HIV have never been so able to exercise their sexual agency, bodily autonomy, and freedom to love. With each passing day, we endeavor to move towards the visions for our collective future imagined by visionaries such as Marsha P. Johnson and her contemporaries at organizations such as ACT UP— visions of liberation for all people living with HIV, and of a world that fully values the dignity, brilliance, and worth of those living with HIV who are most marginalized by racism, transphobia and homophobia, and poverty.
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Why Intersectionality Is An Essential Part of Public Health
By Tracy Waller, Esq., MPH
Life-limiting inequities continue to persist in healthcare, community living and justice for people with disabilities.
The Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities (Center for Dignity) focused on the important work of addressing the inequities that persist for people with disabilities in healthcare and their perpetuation due to systemic ableism.
Every person has their own unique and lived experiences. As poet Audre Lorde said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
Continue readingNIDILRR Awards Field Initiative Project Grant To the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities
For Immediate Release:
December 7, 2022
Contact: Leah Smith, Project Director
Leah.Smith@cchmc.org
The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCCEDD) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) a Field Initiative (FI) Project Grant to study the impacts of internalized, interpersonal, and systemic ableism in healthcare services and systems.
Continue readingDisability Led Coalition Awarded ACL Grant to Identify and Reduce Life-Limiting Inequities in Healthcare, Community Living, and Justice for People with Disabilities
For Immediate Release:
October 18, 2022.
Contact: Leah Smith, Associate Director
Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality
September Webinars
In Response to the Reversal of Roe v. Wade and Its Impact on People With Disabilities
The Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities is deeply concerned about the overturning of Roe v Wade and what it means for the control people with disabilities have over their reproductive health. As an organization that is dedicated to addressing healthcare inequities faced by people with disabilities, we know that a more reproductively just system would reduce healthcare inequities among this population.
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