Actions taken:
Community Health and Wellness Programs
Canadian Red Cross (CRC) Community Health and Wellness programs are person-centred, promoting agency and personal preferences throughout service delivery models, including the Friendly Calls program, Toronto Emergency Food Delivery program, Nutrition Services and Transportation Services. CRC’s Mobile Food Bank supports individuals with food security needs and who are unable to access a food bank due to visible or invisible disabilities or challenges. CRC’s Health Equipment Loan Program, operating in five provinces, supports individuals in accessing necessary health equipment at no cost to support recovery from injury, surgery, convalescing, or to promote safe and dignified aging in place.
Friendly Calls Program
CRC’s national Friendly Calls program aims to enhance social connection, reduce social isolation, and respond to post-pandemic loneliness and changes in social care infrastructure. The program is designed for adults who can benefit from increased emotional support and social interaction. The program also has an individual and community resilience aspiration through individual, community and health system level supports. By definition and design, this program extends support to marginalized people and is accessible to those who are unable to leave the home, or who do so only with great difficulty. Built into the Friendly Calls program is a “Not Seen, Not Found” protocol. Recognizing that many community members have physical and/or mental disabilities, as well as fluctuating cognitive capacity, this protocol ensures that there is a process in place to check-in on individuals who are unresponsive to scheduled phone calls and address systemic barriers to care and support.
Protection Gender Inclusion and Engagement (PGIE)
CRC has worked to mainstream minimum standards for PGI in Emergencies through the implementation of key PGI tools in operations, such as the PGI Checklist, protection protocols, trainings, and briefings. Recommendations from the PGI checklist include ensuring that all physical sites of operations are accessible, including when CRC provides shelters/accommodations, registration, and health services, among others. CRC also ensures that appropriate referral pathways are in place that are accessible and meet identified needs. PGI briefings are provided to all CRC personnel, including awareness about disability inclusion. CRC has also included specific need-based questions to standard intake forms, which cover aspects of disability inclusion. Since 2021, these practices have been applied to over sixty domestic operations.
International Programming
Equitable access and inclusion of all people, including those with disabilities, in international programs and services is a priority for CRC. Below are examples from recent international projects that demonstrate this commitment.
South Sudan
During a project in West Gogrial in South Sudan (2018-2022), CRC supported 24 schools with increasing accessibility for students with disabilities. Ramps and handrails were installed, and washrooms were renovated to be more accessible for children with mobility limitations.
Ukraine
In Ukraine, the shelter program for IDPs from Eastern Ukraine, included upgrading buildings with ramps and handrails and to include assisted devices to increase the overall accessibility of the shelters for everyone.
CRC-supported Mobile Health Units in Ukraine, (in Cherkasy and Poltava oblasts) provide primary healthcare services in rural settings, where there is a large number of elderly people with disabilities. These are individuals who have a difficult time accessing primary healthcare facilities in the urban areas. Care is taken to ensure that ramps and rails are in place to promote high inclusion and accessibility.
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) Regional Branches, including in CRC-supported Cherkasy and Poltava, have a program that offers free assisted devices to anyone that identifies as having a disability.
The CRC-supported Home-based Care program in Ukraine, in Cherkasy and Poltava, works with seniors who have disabilities and who have great difficulty leaving their homes. Support services include personal care, home care, and shopping. The majority of seniors accessing this program are female.
Libya
During the MHPSS ERU Module deployment to Libya (2023), the PGI checklist was completed. Accessibility issues that were identified at the MHPSS Community Centre were addressed (e.g. Adding ramps and handrails where needed).
Overall, many challenges exist in addressing the great diversity of disabilities within the communities CRC serves. CRC demonstrates success in addressing physical, and thus more visible disabilities, however, disabilities relating to hearing, vision, and cognitive/psychological functioning remain a challenge and something CRC plans to continue to improve on.