Best Buddies Helps Those With Disabilities Get Vaccinated
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Best Buddies organization is helping to make sure everyone who wants a vaccine is able to get one.
For those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the crowds and commotion can make getting the vaccine a challenging ordeal.
Best Buddies say they want to make it as pain free as possible, so they are working to create an environment that best suits the needs of their members.
"They have been very helpful to help kids get vaccinated who have anxiety among all these people," says Maria Knight, who took her son James to get vaccinated.
"Over the last year, he's been cooped up at home, so this gives him some more sense of normalcy," she says.
Saturday, they went to Bucky Dent Stadium in Hialeah, where they did not have to worry about waiting in a line and could go right in.
"They're walked through a slightly different process, explains Raquel Linares, the Best Buddies Jobs Director. "We are able to identify what it is they need, so they have a good experience while getting vaccinated."
Linares says even though they were able to launch digital programs for their members, it has still been a challenge.
"This has been a year where, for people with IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities) the difficulties have been in being isolated-- further isolated," says Linares. "They already encounter isolation in their everyday lives if they are not in programs like ours."
That is why they hope the vaccine can make a big difference in giving everyone a little peace of mind and closer to getting back together.
Best Buddies staff members will be at two locations: Bucky Dent Stadium in Hialeah and Broward College North Campus in Coconut Creek.
They will be there Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, as well as Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
