Covid-19: Lagos PLWDs lament media neglect in highlighting plights

• Says members resort to self help

People who are living with disability in Lagos State, PLWDs, have called on the media to have vulnerable population in mind while reporting Covid-19.

The group who feels the media practitioners is insensitive to their plights accessing Covid-19 testing and treatment said little or nothing have been reported concerning them as most of their members have resorted to self medications.

Speaking during a recent media professionals’ training organized by the Lagos State Ministry of Health in collaboration with Lafiya Project for reporters in Lagos, Dr Adebukola Adebayo from Lagos State Civil Society Partnership, LASCOP, called on the media to sensitize the policy makers and the general public on the challenges faced by PLWDs accessing Covid-19 treatment. 

The training with a theme: “Gender & Social Inclusion in Covid-19 Response: The role of the Media,” Adebayo who was represented by the Mrs Josephine Omolola, also from LASCOP, said several studies conducted indicate that most public health facilities are largly inaccessible to persons with disability.

He said: “Even within the disability spectrum, accessibility manifest in different ways to different impairment. Media practitioners should, therefore, be able to sensitize the public on the importance of ensuring all forms of accessibility within public health facilities.

“Since the advent of Covid-19, there’s no evidence to show that media reportage have given any attention to sensitising policy makers and the general public on the need to locate Covid-19 testing and treatment facility in accessible buildings,” Adebayo said

He urged media practitioners to focus on disseminating health-focused programmes that educate health workers and professionals of behaviour, institutional practice and policy that works for persons with disability to public health facilities and prevent them from seeking self-medications which pose as health threat to themselves and other members of the public.

Also speaking why there is a surge in the cases of Covid-19 lately, the Incident Manager in Lagos State, Dr Ismail Abdul-Salam, said it is because most people still don’t believe that Covid-19 is real.

He urged the media to increase awareness and sensitisation to the general public.

He said: “We need to pass proper education to the general public on the proper use of face mask and other protocols.”