Background
In late 2021, the Government started to reduce many COVID-19 measures and embrace a ‘living with COVID-19’ approach. People with Disability Australia (PWDA) wanted to know how this current approach is affecting our members and what, if any, action they would like to see the governments take. PWDA distributed a survey to its members in March 2023, which received 104 responses. This was followed by an online member forum held on 4 July 2023, which had 31 participants. The common themes from the survey and forum were:
- most members have felt worried or scared about the Government’s relaxing of COVID-19 measures
- that the Government and public is ‘pretending’ that the pandemic is over
- feeling forgotten, ignored, and undervalued by the Government and the public
- concern about contracting long COVID
- very strong support for telehealth
- feeling unsafe about going out into the community.
This position statement and the below recommendations is based on what we heard from our members through the survey and the online member forum. We have summarised the findings of our consultations in a report. Please see the COVID-19 survey summary report
