COVID-19 visitation bans for people in institutions put many at risk in other ways

Natalie Spagnuolo and Michael Orsini, CBC News Opinion, March 29, 2020
Disabled people know a lot about social isolation. Many, including those with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities, are relying on the success of COVID-19 containment strategies, and lives are indeed at risk if they are not taken seriously. However, public health measures that restrict visiting rights to those in institutional settings are putting many at risk in other ways. While public health principles have a rightful place in our decisions, so too do principles that recognize the humanity and dignity of people with disabilities. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds, recent decisions to implement visitation bans in group homes for people with intellectual disabilities, in psychiatric hospitals and wards, and in prisons, recall a familiar and painful history for many disabled people. In these days of physical distancing, it is important to emphasize that this is one of the oldest public health measures aimed at containing the imagined threat of disability. Many disabled people are already separated from non-disabled people. It is a legacy of eugenic segregation, which has been resisted by survivors of former government-run institutions for people with intellectual disabilities, such as Huronia and the Rideau Regional Centre in Ontario.