Transcript Disability and Disaster - Northumbria University

Ruth Northway
 Article
11: Situations of risk and
humanitarian emergencies
• ‘States parties shall take ...all necessary
measures to ensure the protection and safety of
persons with disabilities, including situations of
armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and
the occurrence of natural disasters’
Disabled people
at additional risk
in context of
disasters
Disasters as a
cause of
disability
 Disproportionate
impact
 Lack of inclusion in emergency
preparedness
 Inaccessibility of facilities
 Potential for discrimination
 Exclusion in terms of long term recovery

Disabled people diverse group

Intellectual disabilities
• Impairment of cognitive functioning
• Impairment of social functioning
• Condition acquired before the age of 18

Lack of accurate prevalence data
• In some countries stigma and minimal health provision
lead to lack of diagnosis/ recognition
• Lack of differentiation of types of impairment
• Data suggest highest prevalence rates in low and middle
income countries (Maulik et al, 2011)
 Intelligence:
• Capacity for understanding our surroundings
• Being able to figure things out and make sense
of things
• Affects ability to understand complex ideas, to
adapt to environments, to learn from experience
and problem solving
• Each of these areas presents challenges in the
context of emergencies and disasters
 Restricted
educational opportunities
 Restricted employment opportunities
 Subject to stigma and discrimination
 High risk of poverty
 At risk of poor health status
 At risk of abuse and neglect
 Protection
from abuse
• Need to consider the provision of ‘safe’ areas
• Need to train volunteers to assist disabled
•
•
•
•
people and their families
Need to ensure access to information
Peer counselling
Need to establish or re-establish support
networks
Encourage participation of disabled people in
all decision making processes
 Life
experiences may render them less
able to cope
 Limited social support networks
 May not be included in general
preparedness activities
 May find it difficult to understand
abstract concepts
Abandonment
Others may not be aware of their existence
Violence and abuse
May not be able to provide personal information
to aid workers or others
 May not be able to communicate pain, distress
and other symptoms to others
 Aid workers may not have training to assist them
in supporting people with intellectual disabilities
 Time required for explanation and support may
not be available
 Difficulties with understanding and responding
to ‘orders’




Death rate of people with intellectual disability
not recorded in official statistics
 Delays in searching for and confirming the safety
of people with intellectual disabilities
particularly those who did not have contact with
day care facilities
 List of people with intellectual disabilities
maintained by municipality but access denied to
volunteers on the grounds of privacy – only one
municipality gave access
 Difficulties with life within refuges
 Importance of accessible registers
 Importance of multiple community networks

 Loss
of support networks
 Loss of service provision
 Loss of personal history
 Competition for scarce resources in the
context of stigma and negative attitudes
 Post traumatic stress disorder and other
psychological difficulties may not be
recognised and appropriate support
provided
 Difficulties
with looking after children
with intellectual disabilities in communal
shelters – families deciding to return
home to try and cope without electricity
 A day care, respite and counselling
facility completely destroyed
 Some people lost family members and
had to live with support of volunteers
 Many people were isolated who could
not contact organisation for support
 Three
possible responses:
• Do nothing – ‘...in situations where there are few
resources and many needs, the disabled are simply
not given priority’
• Provide special services – ‘top down’ planning which
often views disability as a medical condition
• Participatory approaches- involving disabled people
in assessing their vulnerability to harm and capacity
for self protection
 Developing
body of expertise in relation to
actively involving people with intellectual
disabilities in research
 Awareness raising
• Amongst people with intellectual disabilities and
their families / carers
• Amongst policy makers, mainstream NGOs, amongst
health practitioners, amongst trainers, amongst
emergency planners, amongst research funding
bodies
 Work
with people with intellectual
disabilities to identify what they see as key
issues
• Draw upon the experiences of those who have been
directly involved as well as those who do not have
experience
 Agree
priorities
 Work with people with intellectual
disabilities to develop strategies
 Involve people with intellectual disabilities
in training delivery
 Post
disaster as an opportunity to
promote inclusion?
 Ruth
Northway
Professor of Learning Disability Nursing
Faculty of Health, Sport and Science
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
E mail:
[email protected]