Disasters ‘especially hard on people with learning disabilities’

People who have learning disabilities or mental health problems have more problems coping with disasters, new research suggests.

Published in Rehabilitation Psychology, the study, which was conducted in the aftermaths of the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina, show that the type of disaster can have a distinct effect on how people respond psychologically.

It found that after Hurricane Katrina, people with learning disabilities faced considerable barriers to housing, transportation and disaster services, which were still present two years after the storm.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, 34 per cent of the study’s participants, most of which (87 per cent) were injured in the attack, developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The associations of injury with distress and disability suggest that community programs should reach out to injured people for early mental health and functional assessments,” said study author Fran Norris, PhD, director of the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research at the Dartmouth Medical School.

According to the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, about 985,000 people in England have a learning disability.