The right to health is increasingly important according to the current pandemic situation. Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement that central and regional governments must ensure that people with disabilities have easy access to the health sector. The reason is, they are more vulnerable to the spread of the Corona virus.
Based on data from the 2019 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), the number of people with disabilities in Indonesia is 9.7 percent of the population, or around 26 million people.
In response to this, the research institute for social change, Article33 Indonesia, conducted research to find out the extent of implementation of government policies in providing health rights for people with disabilities. The research which started in 2020 will continue until the end of 2021. Klaten Regency and Wajo Regency were chosen as research locations.
“There are three criteria for selecting a research area. One, it already has a disability regional regulation (Regional Regulation). "Two, the number of disabilities with a relatively large ratio, and finally the ratio of Jamkes which is relatively low but the number of disabilities is large," said Article33 Economics researcher, Yusuf Faisal Martak, Wednesday, August 25 2021.
Article33 produced two conclusions from research in these two areas, namely the lack of access to disabilities and the low quality of health services. "One of the important access points is the uneven availability of Jamkes (health insurance), health workers (health workers) and not according to needs. Regarding quality, for example, support equipment for people with disabilities. "Currently it is still limited to several types of disabilities, even though there are many types of disabilities," said Yusuf.
Of the 26 million people with disabilities in Indonesia, 31 percent or 8 million people do not have health insurance. In fact, they are a vulnerable group that needs health services the most because of their special ability to receive routine services.
The research also found not only a shortage of health workers, but also low knowledge of health workers in understanding disability needs. For example, health workers do not understand how to communicate with deaf people so that patients cannot convey their complaints optimally.
For your information, the number of people with disabilities in Indonesia sourced from Susenas is not in line with data from regional social services. The Ministry of Social Affairs, through Minister of Social Affairs Regulation Number 2 of 2021, is updating disability data by starting data collection at the sub-district level. One source is Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS).
According to Yusuf, DTKS can no longer be a benchmark. "The Social Service in Klaten admits that the number of people with disabilities in their area is small because of the DTKS. "There must be data collection again, like a population census but specifically for disabilities," he said.
For your information, the DTKS at the Ministry of Social Affairs only contains 40 percent of the population who have the lowest social welfare status. So, the disabilities recorded in the DTKS are classified as having the lowest welfare, not including the total number of disabilities in Indonesia.
Accurate data on the number of people with disabilities, said Yusuf, is very important because it is the basis for various policies that will be implemented. He is grateful that Article33's presence in Wajo and Klaten has succeeded in providing a new perspective for policy makers. The regional government realizes that so far there has been a lack of attention regarding the health rights of people with disabilities.
The Social Service in Wajo Regency together with Article33 is currently deploying a team that will carry out re-collection of data by directly visiting residents. "Indeed, initially we started based on existing data (Dinsos), but later we searched for neighbors of people with disabilities who were in the data," said Yusuf.
From various findings in Wajo and Klaten, Article33 provides four recommendations to the Wajo Regency Government and the Klaten Regency Government. First, improving disability data collection. Second, structuring disability services during the pandemic, including SOPs for health services and equal distribution of health workers for disability health services. Third, improving disability-friendly infrastructure, and finally the reward mechanism.
Specifically, Wajo Regency will form a disability committee, while Klaten already has a community that accommodates people with disabilities, namely the Klaten Disabled Persons Association (PPDK). The existence of these associations plays a role in establishing synergy between local governments and community groups.
Yusuf said, although the results of the research along with policy recommendations, as well as collaboration with the Wajo Regency Government and the Klaten Regency Government, could not be used as role models to be applied to other regions, all these results will become a basis for bringing research results to the central government. “These two areas will be finished best practices. "We will use a perspective in these two areas because we already know the mistakes that occurred," he said.
The results of Article33's research can be seen in the book Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities which contains complete studies and recommendations. Article33's hard work in providing knowledge sources to become the basis for making government policies based on concrete evidence, is a strong signal for the government to strengthen collaboration with various institutions and tanks in order to achieve better inclusive development in Indonesia.(*)
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