Farkasné Gönczi Rita:

Easy to understand communication during COVID in Hungary


2022/2 | #COVID #easy-to-understand communication | DOI: 10.31287/FT.en.2022.2.6

The legal institution of supported decision-making was introduced by the Civil Code in force on 15 March 2014, in addition to the CLV of 2013 on supported decision-making. The Act regulates the provisions on the appointment of a support worker, the duties of a support worker or a professional support worker and the records keeping. The supported decision-making system helps to make decisions based on individual needs without restricting the capacity to act. In the new COVID epidemic situation, the supported decision-making for people with intellectual disabilities is temporarily difficult. The National Public Health Center issued a leaflet on March 10, 2020. The information changed rapidly, the rules were constantly expanding. In the current situation, equal access to the necessary information for supported decisionmaking was not available in a uniform format. The examples show that professionals and NGOs dealing with easy-to-understand communication responded almost immediately to the situation and provided information about the health emergency. In 2020, more practices developed in the civil and institutional sectors, the impact of which is still being felt today. In addition to easy-to-understand content translations and self-contained information materials, communication-friendly content has also been developed for healthcare professionals. In this study, I present the COVID information published in easy-to-understand communication in chronological order. An overview of these can support the development of unified strategic steps in a subsequent emergency situation.