COVID-19 Caregiver Tip Sheets
“Countries around the world are actively working to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. One strategy is social distancing or avoiding interaction with others. While this strategy is necessary, it can contribute to feelings of isolation and affect a person’s mental health. This is true for family caregivers and the person they support.”
The Ontario Caregiver Organization provided information tip sheets to help support caregivers, as well as the people they support, adapt to this new way of life. Some topics are:
- Caregiver Mental Health
- How Technology Can Support Caregivers
- Virtual Caregiver Support Group
- Connection Socially While Keeping your Distance
Read more here: https://ontariocaregiver.ca/covid-19/tipsheets/
COVID-19 Support Opportunities
In challenging times such as these, people may feel more isolated and alone while social distancing themselves from their friends and family. The Ontario Government is working with Spark Ontario to connect volunteers with seniors and people with disability to provide them with the support they may need.
Learn more about these opportunities at https://www.sparkontario.ca/
How to Make Your Virtual Meetings and Events Accessible to the Disability Community
Author: Alina Leary
Published: April 13, 2020
As many meetings and events have been moved to take place on virtual platforms due to COVID-19, it is important to keep accessibility in mind. Just as event organizers work hard to ensure in-person events are accessible to everyone, virtual events require the same dedication. This article lists the various ways in which you can plan a virtual event to be accessible, from what to do in advance to during the event.
OW and ODSP Emergency Benefits
Author: Hamilton Community Legal Clinic
Published: May 2020
The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic offers many resources related to income security, and the changes to access of OW and ODSP in the time of COVID-19. This infographic presents the fast facts on the changes related to the policies and CERB
https://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/uploads/COVID-19/OW%20and%20ODSP%20emergency%20benefit_Page_1.png
Fostering a Sense of Belonging in Times of Crisis and Challenge: An Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Handbook for Individuals and Organizations During COVID-19
Author: Office of Diversity and Human Rights
Published: Spring 2020
In these challenging times when everyone's lives are being affected by the COVID-19 pandmic, it is important that we continue to maintain a culture of equity, inclusion, and support in our communities. This is a time to come together, offer to help one another, and work to strengthen the relationship within out communities.
The Office of Diversity and Human Rights is pleased to provide our U of G community, and the broader community, with a handbook to help navigate these challenging times. It offers suggestions and tips on how to focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion so we can support one another during the difficult days ahead.
https://www.uoguelph.ca/diversity-human-rights/system/files/COVID%20EDI%20Handbook.pdf
The Black Perspectives Initiative Covid-19 Information and Resource Package
This document has been created to offer information and resources that the BPI think could be useful to its community during this time. The document is split to nine sections: food, housing, income, school, mental health, social distancing, community-specific concerns, mutual aid and getting involved.
This pandemic has hit black communities hard and we must acknowledge that there is a large spectrum of precarity and injustice across experiences. As we grapple with the uncertain future, it is our hope that this moment opens up a sense of interdependence and solidarity between us all.
Care in Uncertain Times Syllabus
Author: Duke University Press
As we collectively deal with the implications of social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and a global pandemic, questions of care and self-care have become ever more important. These books, issues, and articles investigate different ways that care can bind together individuals and communities where larger institutions or governments fail to intervene. They show how radical care is essential to enduring precarity and to laying the groundwork for new futures.
All content is free to read online through June 30, 2020.
Access the list here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/Explore-Subjects/Syllabi/Care-in-Uncertain-Times-Syllabus
Prioritizing Diversity and Inclusion in Times of Crisis
Author: the Feminuity Team
Published: March 19, 2020
The Feminuity Team put together a resource to help us identify and respond to different forms of inequity that may be exarcebated during the crisis.
- Racism
- Ableism and Ageism
- Domestic Violence
- Impacting Livelihoods
- Indigenous Communities
- Front-line Workers
- Remote Work
- Child care and Caregiving
They call for local and global community collaboration to find creative strategies to provide the services for people in need.
Read it all: https://www.feminuity.org/blog/dei-in-crisis
Autism Ontario, List of Resources to Help Us Through COVID-19
Autism Ontario provides a repository of resources for people living with autism and their families. Resources address:
- Health Resources
- Covid-19 Funding Sources
- Mental Health
- Caregiver Tips
- 18 and over
- First Nation, Metis and Inuit Resources
- Learning at Home
- Activities
Access here: https://www.autismontario.com/list-resources-help-us-through-covid-19
Free audiobook, “Meet Me Accessibly – A Guide to Zoom Cloud Meetings from a Blindness Perspective”
Meet Me Accessibly is a three-hour audiobook, written and narrated by Jonathan Mosen. It takes you from the basics of attending your first Zoom meeting, all the way to content sharing of your video and audio from a computer or iDevice.
Just some of the things Jonathan shows you in Meet Me Accessibly include:
- Attending your first Zoom meeting
- Creating compelling and effective online meetings of up to 100 participants for discussions or webinars
- Using Zoom to have a sighted person take control of your computer, even a Mac user can control a Windows PC and vice versa
- Running visually attractive presentations using PowerPoint, or by sharing the output of any application on your computer
- Taking advantage of the audio for use in a podcast, including creating separate audio files for every participant for use in a multitrack editor such as Amadeus Pro or Reaper
- Scheduling meetings
Access it here: https://mosen.org/zoom/