Núcleo Disca

• With the presence of attendees from different parts of the country, Núcleo DISCA held the Seminar “Towards an equitable health system for people with disabilities”.
• We counted with the presentations of 10 researchers in disability, including the presence of international specialists such as Dikaios Sakellariou, Pia Venturiello, Pamela Molina and Beatriz Miranda.

With the collaboration of the Fondecyt DisPar project (Reproductive processes and parental experiences of people with disabilities in Chile: discrimination, adaptation and resistance) and the Universidad Diego Portales, last December 14 – in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Social Sciences and History UDP – was held the seminar “Towards an equitable health system for people with disabilities” coordinated by the DISCA Core Team and with the special support of the Principal Researcher of the organization, Elena Rotarou.

With three panels during the day and the presence of people who had not participated in previous activities, we celebrated diversity and research in different segments. First, we opened with the panel that gave the Seminar its name, with the participation of Dikaios Sakellariou from Cardiff University, United Kingdom; Pía Venturiello, from the University of Buenos Aires and Pamela Molina, Executive Director of the World Federation of the Deaf.

Then, the panel “Reform of mental health legislation in Chile” was held with the participation of the lawyer and alternate director of DISCA, Pablo Marshall, Marcelo Sanhueza from the Ministry of Health and Alejandro Guajardo, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Santiago de Chile.

At the end of the activity we celebrated the panel called “Decisions, experiences and support in the reproductive stage of people with disabilities” with the presence of Jimena Luna, Project Coordinator at CEDETi UC and CIAPAT Chile, Andrea Yupanqui from the University of Magallanes, Beatriz Miranda, Coordinator of the Program of critical studies of “disability” and Melissa Hichins from Reprodis.

In this sense, we highlight “the quality of the presentations (which) was of a very high level and we were able to learn about national experiences and from different parts of the world regarding access to health care for people with disabilities (…) which allowed us to learn about other realities, allowing us to ask new questions about the barriers and support that exist in Chile. In addition, we are proud that we were able to have people with disabilities on all the panels. This allows us to continue advancing in our seal: that all these spaces are from people with disabilities and with people with disabilities”, says the team of Núcleo DISCA.

With the realization of this event, we see ourselves closer to the deaf community by having Carmen Figueroa, expert by experience of Núcleo DISCA who officiated as master of ceremonies. In addition, “Pamela Molina, from the World Federation of the Deaf, presented the work they have been doing in different communities; we have interpreters in Chilean sign language and with the attendance of deaf people in the activity. This makes us very happy and challenges us to continue advancing to reach all people with disabilities.