Dealing with cluelessness

Screen capture from the published Aleh video clip

I never cease to be amazed by the utter cluelessness of our decision-makers about the needs of people with disabilities.

Yesterday, our State Comptroller, Matanya Engelman, visited the Aleh branch in Ofakim, Aleh Negev. He donned the standard "blinders" that Israel's leaders persist in wearing when assessing the lives of our most vulnerable.

Consequently, the risks and suffering entailed in housing large numbers of children and young adults with disabilities in large, closed facilities eluded him.

He is patently unaware of the global move to transfer that population to families within the community in the rest of the developed world [see "The case for de-institutionalization in the COVID-19 era"]

These were the parting words of praise that he wrote in the Aleh Negev guest book:

"Blessings from the bottom of my heart for your impressive, empowering work for the good of the population of people with disabilities in the Negev. With your blessed achievements you constitute a model for the rest of Israel's society. Be blessed and expand your activities. I consider it important to tend to the needs of the population with disabilities, especially in the perphery. We in the Comptroller's office focus on these aspects of society in order to be the ears and eyes for those populations deserving of advancement."

This uninformed attitude towards people who desperately need government intervention is disconcerting, to put it mildly. This is especially true now, in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic.

In stark contrast, here is a Facebook post of People With Disability Australia dated August 1, 2020:

The spread of the COVID-19 in congregate living situations like aged care facilities, and now in a Melbourne group home, really emphasises the need for people with disability to be supported to live independently.
People who live in group homes often do not get to choose where they live, who they live with, how many people they live with, or who is assigned to support them.
Social distancing is much more difficult in congregate living situations with a lot of people coming and going, including staff, visitors and residents. This is a public health concern for everyone involved.
People with disability have been identified as particularly “vulnerable” to this potentially deadly illness. If only we all had the freedom to decide who, and how many people, we have contact with in our own homes.
We have made a submission to the Disability Royal Commission regarding the need to end group homes. You can find it here.

You can observe the conditions of Aleh Negev's residents in a video clip which the Aleh PR team considered worthy of circulation.

Remember this is a scene which was not concealed because of the crowding, dearth of staff, absence of social distancing or lack of stimulation. Rather, it was proudly posted on Aleh's Facebook page several days ago - online here. The relevant scenes are at 0:06, 0:07, 0:18

Meanwhile I have lodged an official request with Israel's Agency for Freedom of Information for the segmentation-by-institution of the COVID-19 data I received from the Ministry of Labor and Welfare recently and that I published in my July 29, 2020 post [here].

Hoping that I can share that with you soon.