Disabled residents in Redbridge are invited to take part in a questionnaire to help local health and social care services understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting them.
The questionnaire has been created by the local North East London Healthwatch, in partnership with the East London Health and Care Partnership (the eight councils and 12 NHS organisations in East London).
“This questionnaire for disabled residents will help us to understand what they are going through, in order to address any challenges and to plan future services. In a recent Healthwatch Redbridge COVID-19 survey that we carried out we found there was some confusion amongst some respondents as they were unsure whether they met the criteria for shielding. We remain concerned that some people may have missed support they were entitled to,” said Healthwatch Redbridge CEO Cathy Turland.
Stage 1: Confidential questionnaire
The questionnaire is for disabled residents of Redbridge regardless of whether or not they regularly use health or social care services or have had COVID-19. The answers are strictly confidential. Those taking part will not be required to provide their names, the names of those they are caring for, or identifiable personal data. However, to involve participants in developing the recommendations from the questionnaire and for them to know what difference they make there is the opportunity to provide contact details.
Prize Draw
The questionnaire will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. As an appreciation of the time spent taking part, those who complete it and leave contact details will take part in a prize draw to win a £200 Amazon voucher or one of three £100 vouchers. The closing date for the questionnaire to be completed is 28 March.
The questionnaire can either be filled in online or the person wishing to take part can be interviewed by a Community Researcher in a way that works for them, including by phone or via a video link
Stages 2 & 3
There will be two further stages following on from the questionnaire. The second stage will be gathering further qualitative research and the third stage will be to develop recommendations for future service provision.
Only recently the Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, found that the health and wellbeing of disabled people continues to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and almost a quarter more disabled people experienced difficulties in access to health care for non-COVID-related issues compared to non-disabled people. They made up an estimated 60% of Covid-related deaths during lockdown from March to June last year.
