CN. Covid-19, ableism, DNR, death, call for solidarity

Are feeling impotent and bored during your lockdown - the disabled community needs your solidarity.

In the last week or so disabled and elderly people all over the UK have been contacted by their GPs or careworkers to discuss DNRs, countless people have reported being pressured to sign DNRs and not to make use of emergency services if they do fall ill with Covid-19.

In cases where people have refused, their GP has later overruled them and signed the letter on their behalf. he reasons given for this include - people being reliant on care services - which is an unbearably broad.

Essentially it is an assessment of the value of their life, more than a medical assessment. For example, physically healthy learning disabled people have been included. Others have included MS, Cystic Fibrosis, and other 'life-limiting conditions"

This is a policy, based on disabled people's perceived worth. It has been heartbreaking to have my twitter timeline and DMs fill up with fear and horror to have DNRs posted through their letterbox signed by their GP. I have never been so angry.

Real people with interests, pets, hobbies, favourite music, faults, loves, families, passions, everything that makes up being a person. Then to read absolutely morally absent responses from able-bodied people... was sadly not surprising.

Disabled people have every bit as much of a textured full life as someone without illness or pain. The dehumanisation of disabled people is how so many people have turned away from the disability benefit cuts...

...the horrific and humiliating assessments and the deaths due to austerity measures across welfare, social care, voluntary sector, and NHS services. What this policy has shown is a significant shift in what is considered an acceptable policy.

If we review the last few weeks the conversation has with breathtaking speed framed the elderly and disabled people as burdens on an already struggling NHS and economy during this crisis.

The continuing mention of 'underlying health conditions' when reporting deaths - which is useful in understanding risk from a public health perspective rooted in reducing health inequalities, but horrifying when used to distance the deaths of people from the "norm".

I am not here to persuade you of the value of disabled people's lives - I will not under any circumstance discuss that. Do you follow disabled people here or on twitter? The disabled community is an incredibly vibrant, brave and empathetic community, I promise you won't regret it

Some suggestions would include - @bennessb, @nototally (also v.good on anti-Asian rhetoric atm/always) @SFdirewolf, @DisVisibility, @shonalouiseblog, @HannahPopsy, @TinyWriterLaura, @laurawritesit, @Amy_Claire_x, @GaetaAmy, @kittystrand_,

@coffeespoonie (although their account is locked atm), Annie Segarra @annieelainely

Take time to learn more about the disabled community, ableism and what you can do. We need you now, and we will need you when things "return to normal"