Disability and old age: the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant and long-term social implication for economics, education, and employment. This paper aims to analyse the current situation in Turkey from the perspective of disabled and older people. Specific precautions related to the virus were taken for this population. However the precautions were implemented in a disorganized manner and did not necessarily protect the whole group. In some cases the precautions might be detrimental by nature. It was concluded that the governments need to be flexible to support the citizens. This analysis could be beneficial to Turkey and other countries in the case of that disease or a different pandemic.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• disability
• old age
• pandemic
• Turkey
• lockdown

On the 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the COVID-19 as a pandemic. The number of cases of the disease outside China had increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries had tripled (WHO 2020). The day before, Turkey declared its first positive case. According to current statistics (02 February 2021), there have been a total of 2.492.977 cases and 26.237 deaths (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health 2020a). This paper aims to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey from the perspective disabled and older people.

Disability and old age were grouped as one in policy. Although these are two very different concepts and involves diverse groups of people, formally they were melted in one pot. There is a single governmental agency that organizes services about disability and old age, called General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly. In Turkey, disabled people are becoming the subjects of familial care and charity (Yılmaz 2011), and although there have been promising transformations recently, the stigmas, discrimination, and inequality are still experienced by these people (Açıksöz 2020, Yılmaz 2019). In Turkey to be classified as legally disabled, a person needs to have at least a 40% medical report (Official Gazette-No: 30692 2019). This report was given by a group of medical doctors and only considers the impairment aspect of a condition. If you could not get that report with that strict cut-off point, you could not claim any disability benefit. Old age is mainly defined in relation to retirement age and in Turkey it is 58 for women and 60 for men (OECD 2017). Tufan et al. (2019) argued that old age is associated with poverty and loneliness. Poverty is also cited as an important problem among disabled people in Turkey (Meral 2015; Yılmaz 2019). This becomes specifically important when we think about the inevitable associations between COVID-19 and poverty (Sumner, Hoy, and Ortiz-Juarez2020).

To limit the spread of COVID-19 certain precautions were taken in Turkey. It was stated that schools would be closed for one week and then the education would be continued remotely through television and the Internet. In addition, the universities would be closed for three weeks (DHA 2020). On 13 March 2020, an announcement was made stating that the public officials who were pregnant, using breastfeeding leave, disabled employees, officials who were above 60 (and not have managerial duties), and the disadvantaged groups classified by the ministry would be on administrative leave for twelve consecutive days starting on 16 March 2020. The disadvantaged groups were the employees who have chronic diseases (Kıratlı 2020). Although the three-day gap between the notice and its implementation was a matter of discussion, the statement offered a huge relief for a large number of people. On the same day (13 March 2020), the Council of Higher Education made an announcement, which confirms the administrative leave among universities (CoHE 2020a). In addition, on 18 March 2020, the universities, which have relevant capacity, would start distance education on 23 March 2020 (CoHE 2020b).

On 21 March 2020, the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior announced it was imposing a lockdown for a group of citizens. The citizens who were older than 65 and people who had immune system deficiencies, chronic respiratory diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and liver diseases and those who were taking drugs that would negatively affect their immune systems would be in lockdown starting on 22 March 2020 (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior 2020a). Exceptions for certain employees such as doctors, nurses, journalists or bakers were provided. This enforcement was specifically critical for people who were over 65 since they could be much more easily noticed if they go out, whereas others, such as a younger person who has asthma, could break the lockdown rules. The lockdown punishment was a fine of 3,150 Turkish Liras, which equals roughly 377 dollars where the monthly minimum wage is 2,825 TL. This lockdown was not eased until 10 May 2020, when the older people were allowed out a few hours per week (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior 2020b). Unfortunately, the lockdown was largely misunderstood by the public. The older people were regarded as the source of virus and were harassed within the society and it turns into a form of ageism (Giritli-İnceoğlu 2020). A similar lockdown was applied for citizens who were below 20 starting from 4 April 2020. An exception to this lockdown was provided on 9 April 2020 for children and adolescents who have ‘special needs’. Within this notice, ‘people with special needs’ were defined as those who have autism, severe intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome and similar conditions (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior 2020c, 2020d). The usage of the term ‘similar conditions’ was not that appropriate. It is clear that each condition is unique not necessarily ‘similar’ to each other. Another notice was published on 22 March 2020 about public officials. It stated that flexible work arrangements such as working from home or work-rotation might be applied for public officials (Official Gazette-No: 31076 2020). All of these different announcements, laws, and notices had positive intentions but they were inherently confusing. The language that was used was biased, and the classifications were vague. This practices created chaos, especially the lockdowns. There were individuals who could not go to a supermarket for basic needs (there were helplines, but they became insufficient), employees who were called for duty but claimed that they had a classified disease, and disabled people who needed the outdoors for exercising but were trapped at home. It is clear that this was far more different than ‘stay at home’ campaigns. On the other hand, there was not a governmental notice for the private sector employees. The well-established institutions mainly applied flexible working arrangements if appropriate for their sector. However, what happened to others is a huge unanswered question. The Confederation for Persons with Disabilities made an announcement regarding important issues such as risk factors, disabled private sector employees, and the medical, educational, and financial needs of disabled people (Özsaygı 2020). However, up to this point, there were only local solutions and no governmental notice, enforcement or announcement. It should be noted that based on a study conducted in 2002 (Turkey Disability Survey), the percentage of disabled employment was estimated as 21.7 and the number of disabled employees who were public officials was 32.865 (General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly 2011, 2015).

It would not be misleading to say that disabled students were left alone. The Minister of National Education Selçuk (2020) announced that inclusion classes would start on 17 April 2020. The Council of Higher Education (CoHE 2020c) did not make an announcement about disabled students until 7 May 2020. This announcement stated that ‘simple alterations would have important meanings’ so ‘it was necessary to make the distance education as accessible as possible’. There were specific recommendations for ‘blind students’ (e.g. providing contrast colours and larger fonts), ‘students who have hearing disabilities’ (e.g. providing captions if possible) and ‘students who have intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders’ (e.g. accommodating needs of these students). The language that was used was childish and offensive. The recommendations were generic and superficial and did not reflect the complexity of the disability experience. It only considered specific types of disabilities and did not mention other conditions or multiple disabilities. In addition, it was too late, nearly the end of the semester. Furthermore, the announcement about final exams briefly mentions disabled students and did not provide specific recommendations (CoHE 2020d). The same surface level approach was evident in COVID-19 guidelines designed for specific disability types (General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly 2020).

Today, the age-related restrictions and weekend lockdowns are effective. The administrative leave for the public sector employees who have a classified chronic condition is only valid in a limited sense (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health 2020b) and excludes most disabled and older people. Nowadays, the infection numbers are rising but there were not many precautions except the facemasks. Although age or certain medical conditions might place the person in to a riskier position, it is also necessary to evaluate each person’s circumstances as a unique phenomenon. Imagine a blind person who needs to use public transport on daily basis to go to work. This person might be in a riskier position than a person who has a chronic condition but works remotely.

If you are living in a coercive society, where the resources are limited, any kind of impairment makes you more disabled; similarly aging might affect you negatively in such an environment. A basic but practical solution might lie behind flexibility. The governments need to be flexible when imposing restrictions and providing solutions. Regardless of the age or disability status, if people were provided alternatives in relation work or educational arrangements, together with financial support where necessary, it would create a more solid base in relation to the fight against COVID-19.

Acknowledgements

To my dearest auntie Tülüş who died recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rest in peace. The ones that we lost are not numbers, they are the loved ones.