New disability unit to streamline services, provide hassle-free access to PLWDs

The Human Services and Social Security Ministry has announced the establishment of a new unit dedicated to decentralising and streamlining services for Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) across Guyana.
The unit is aimed at ensuring greater accessibility, reduced bureaucracy and enhanced service delivery for PLWDs in both urban and hinterland regions.

Subject Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud made the announcement during the opening of the Unleash-Ability Summit, a dynamic, multi-agency forum hosted on Tuesday at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The summit is aimed at deepening national awareness of the rights of PLWDs and operationalising key elements of the Persons with Disabilities Act (2010). According to Persaud, the unit which will be commissioned in coming weeks is set to become the central hub for all disability-related programmes under the Ministry, drastically reducing bureaucracy and offering seamless application processes, among others.
“This year we’re also going to open a special unit at the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security focusing exclusively on people with special needs. I yesterday received the strategic plan on that so this will happen in a few short weeks and with that happening we will be able to separate all the services, decentralise those services so that persons living with disabilities will have direct access and have easy access hassle-free access to our services.”
“So today as you listen to the work of Government and across agencies you can see that there is laser-sharp focus on ensuring persons who live with disabilities not only dream of a quality of life but have that quality of life and we will continue to work with all of our partners to listen to their recommendations and their ideas on policy and programmes so that as a Government we continue to have the kind of transformational impact for that community,” the Minister disclosed. The initiative, Persaud said builds on Government’s massive expansion of permanent disability assistance, which now supports nearly 30,000 persons nationwide, with that number increasing daily. She also revealed plans to further eliminate long-standing barriers affecting persons living with disabilities. In fact, for those facing mobility and sensory challenges, the Ministry has taken its assistive aids programme to unprecedented heights, with over 1,000 aids distributed directly to homes in every region. “We have been, over the last four years, providing over 1,000 plus of these assistive aids in every region. We have done so in such a way where we even deliver these assistive aids to homes of persons living with disabilities. And this would mean things like wheelchairs, walkers, white canes and canes. And we have done this to ensure that quality of life is very pivotal in what we are trying to achieve. We have partnered with the Ministry of Health through a referral system to ensure that the hearing aids are made very much open to all persons who require them,” she added.