Disabled patients denied access to Emancipation Jubilee celebrations
Charmaine Chevannes-Brown, former project manager at Nubian Life Care Services in Runaway Bay, St Ann, is calling for more awareness as it relates to members of the disabled community.
The call comes in the wake of an incident involving patients at the facility who were prevented from participating in the Emancipation Jubilee event, held in the parish on August 1.
The vehicle transporting the group could not be facilitated at the venue and the shuttle provided could not accommodate wheelchairs.
The patients, ranging from ages 67 to 96, were forced to return to the home. Two of patients are blind, while one is recovering from a stroke.
Chevannes-Brown said the patients were very disappointed.
After much preparation and planning, Chevannes-Brown said the group was prevented from enjoying the annual event because of the attitude and unacceptable behaviour of a security guard who was on duty at the event.
“They sleep for the whole day because everybody wanted to stay up for the whole night,” she explained.
The group was not allowed to drive their own vehicle unto property and was told by a security guard that parking spaces inside the venue were reserved for VIPs.
The organisers could not be reached when called upon by another security guard.
Chevannes-Brown said while the home lost financially because of the money spent to give the patients an evening out, patients left disappointed was upsetting.
“They are so disappointed that we have to be thinking what we can do for them. We rented a vehicle to take them; we bought them their Jamaica clothes; the nurses had to be paid double to work,” she said.
She called on Jamaicans to treat each other with respect, regardless of the other person’s status.
“We need to do better and all of these people are disappointed. If it was someone else with money they would have allowed them. We are wondering what we can do to take away this disappointment from these persons,” she said.