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"Nothing About Us Without Us": preparing a disability-inclusive pandemic response and recovery in Greece

Project Coordinator and Principal Researcher: Dean Emmanouil Pikoulis

Duration: September 2022 - August 2023

Overview

According to the United Nations, a disability-inclusive pandemic response and recovery should be led by individuals with disabilities, forging partnerships, tackling injustice and discrimination, expanding access to technology, and strengthening institutions to create a more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post-COVID-19 world.

In Greece, small steps towards this direction are gradually being developed. According to the European Commission, limited evidence is available on a national level regarding the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups, particularly for disabled people. This study aims to bridge the gap. Research methodology will have an experiential co-design character in an effort to become as inclusive as possible, focusing on the following research objectives:

1. Identify and map challenges, gaps, and discontinuity of the emergency health provision, as well as the specific prerequisites required by individuals with disabilities, in order to maintain their health, safety, dignity, and independence in the community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Provide evidence and policy recommendations about the way health care provision can be strengthened to ensure health for all in the post-COVID-19 era and showcase the importance of inclusion of people with disabilities in emergency preparedness as an essential element of risk reduction and sustainable development. 


Project Outputs

Policy Brief & Research Paper

- The Policy Brief is available here.

- Read the Research Paper of the project, which was published as part of the GreeSE working paper series, GreeSE Paper No.197.


 

Research Team

Pikoulis (002)

Project Coordinator and Principal Researcher: Emmanouil Pikoulis, Professor of Surgery and Dean of School of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

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Advisor: Ioannis Vardakastanis, President of National Confederation of Disabled People- Greece (NCDP)

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Co-Researcher: Evangelia Kallimani, Deputy Director of the Institute of National Confederation of Persons with Disabilities and Chronic Diseases (IN-ESAmeA)

Karamagioli

Co-Researcher: Evika Karamagioli, Jurist, Scientific Collaborator, MSc ‘Global Health- Disaster Medicine’, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Stoupa (002)

Co-Researcher: Eleni Panagiota Stoupa, Social Anthropologist, Scientific Associate ‘MSc Global Health – Disaster Medicine’, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens