Disaster preparedness and response for people with disabilities or special needs
In some ways, disaster preparedness and immediate response are the same for all people, regardless of special needs. Please review the materials elsewhere on this website about general preparedness and response.
There are some special considerations, though, in preparedness for persons with disabilities or other special needs. Persons and caregivers of these persons should:
- Identify a personal support network. Organize a network that includes your home, school, workplace, volunteer site, and any other places where you spend a lot of time. Members of your network can be roommates, relatives, neighbors, friends, and co-workers. They should be people you trust and who can check to see if you need assistance. They should know your capabilities and needs, and be able to provide help within minutes. Include a minimum of three people in your network for each location where you regularly spend a lot of time since people work different shifts, take vacations and are not always available.
- Make a personal disaster preparedness assessment. Decide what you will be able to do for yourself and what assistance you may need before, during and after a disaster. Make a list of your personal needs and your resources for meeting them in a disaster environment. Consider personal care and equipment, transportation and mobility and evacuation needs, and needs of service animals.
- Get informed by contacting your local emergency management office or American Red Cross Chapter to gather information about community hazards, disaster plans, and warning systems. Ask about special assistance programs available in the event of an emergency. Many communities ask people with a disability to register, usually with the local fire or police department, or the local emergency management office so needed help can be provided quickly in an emergency. Let your personal care attendant know you have registered, and with whom. If you are electric-dependent, be sure to register with your local utility company.
- Make a personal disaster plan that includes information about your special needs and how they would relate to your ability to respond to a disaster. Consult with caregivers and with disability-specific agencies (see “additional resources” below) as necessary in your planning.
- Maintain and update your plan every six months
Disaster Response
In the event of a disaster, you may have to take additional steps to protect yourself and your family in an emergency. Here are some specific disaster response considerations for persons with various disabilities and special needs, excerpted from this website (PDF):
| Disability/Special Need | Additional Steps |
| Visually impaired | May be extremely reluctant to leave familiar surroundings when the request for evacuation comes from a stranger. A guide dog could become confused or disoriented in a disaster. People who are blind or partially sighted may have to depend on others to lead them, as well as their dog, to safety during a disaster. |
| Hearing impaired | May need to make special arrangements to receive warnings. |
| Mobility impaired | May need special assistance to get to a shelter. |
| Single working parent | May need help to plan for disasters and emergencies. |
| Non-English speaking persons | May need assistance planning for and responding to emergencies. Community and cultural groups may be able to help keep people informed. |
| People without vehicles | May need to make arrangements for transportation. |
| People with special dietary needs | Should take special precautions to have an adequate emergency food supply. |
| People with medical conditions | Should know the location and availability of more than one facility if dependent on a dialysis machine or other life-sustaining equipment or treatment. |
| People with mental retardation | May need help responding to emergencies and getting to a shelter. |
| People with dementia | Should be registered in the Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return Program |
If you have special needs: Find out about special assistance that may be available in your community. Register with the office of emergency services or the local fire department for assistance so needed help can be provided.
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Stress Management, Disasters, and Persons with Disabilities
Practicing good stress management after a disaster can lessen feelings of distress, especially when the experience of disaster is complicated by the existence of a disability. Following are some helpful strategies for stress management as they relate to persons with disability.
Take care of yourself: Self-care is essential in the effort to cope with stressors during and after a disaster. Eat healthful foods; get plenty of rest; take some time to relax each day; and know your personal limits. You also may find it helpful to learn relaxation techniques, meditation, or yoga. At the same time, it is helpful to consider how self-care is influenced by your disability. Try to bring some of the usual ways you care for yourself to how you care for yourself in the midst of disaster.
Seek support: It is often difficult for people with disabilities, striving as we do for self-reliance, to reach out to others for help. In responding to disasters, however, reaching out to other people allows you to talk with them about the experience. Seek out people you trust, and spend time with family and friends.
When seeking support, remember that your friends and family also may be distressed about the disaster. Because of this, some of your normal sources of support may be unable to provide the help you need. If this is the case, seek out other sources of support.
Maintain routines: If possible, stick with your normal routine, making necessary accommodations for how the disaster may have changed your usual response to your disability. Routines can help provide a sense of normalcy as well as help you maintain normal social contacts at school, work or other places you usually go every day.
Following your regular routine can also help you take your mind off the disaster, even just for a little while. Distracting yourself from thoughts about the disaster is a critical component for successful coping for many people.
If you cannot maintain your regular activities because of the disaster, try to maintain as many of your home routines as possible (such as mealtimes, family time, etc.) and engage in hobbies or activities that you enjoy. Talk with others about how the disaster has influenced your way of managing your disability.
Engage in physical activity: Physical activity can be an excellent stress reliever for many people. To the extent that your disability permits, continue to engage in breathing, stretching, or exercise.
Avoid using drugs and alcohol: Avoid using drugs or alcohol to cope with stress. Such substances only provide a temporary "numbing" for feelings of distress and can lead to additional problems especially if your disability is the sort to require medication. Using substances as a coping mechanism can lead to difficulties in family relationships, job performance and recovery from the disaster.
Consider participating in recovery efforts: Helping others, again to the degree permitted by your disability, can be a great source of stress relief for some people. You can help by volunteering in recovery efforts, such as cleaning up debris, delivering food to families who are struggling or raising disaster recovery funds. You may want to support friends, family members and neighbors by listening to their experiences.
Seek extra help: It is normal to experience feelings of distress after a disaster. However, you may benefit from seeking additional help from a clergy member, mental health professional or your doctor if these feelings persist for more than a month and if they seem to interfere with your daily activities such as work, school or family responsibilities.
Be understanding of yourself and others: Remember that others around you may be feeling distressed. It is normal for people to be more irritable in the initial period after a disaster. Keep this in mind when you are interacting with others, particularly those who may not have had too much experience in working with people with disabilities during disasters.
You also may need to have more patience with yourself. Do not be too hard on yourself if it takes you longer than others to recover from the disaster. Disaster recovery is an individual process. Be aware too that the disaster experience may “wake up” some of your history around the experience of your disability, and try to sift and be clear about what part of your stress is related to the disaster and what part is related to your experience of disability.
Some of this fact sheet is based on information found here. (pdf)
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After the Disaster: Now what?
Although all people of all ages have similar struggles in recovery from disaster, there are some special recovery considerations for persons with disabilities. Here are some tips to help you in your recovery.
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Remember that recovery is a process, not an event. You will probably go through phases of recovery, including:
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Denial (pretending nothing ever happened)
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Anger (finding someone or something to blame)
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Bargaining (imagining that there is some way to erase the disaster or protect against further trauma)
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Depression (feeling numb and sad as the full experience begins to sink in)
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Acceptance (integrating the experience of the disaster within your life experience as a whole)
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Remember that this process takes time, and that you can be patient with yourself as you take the journey of recovery.
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Anticipate and be on the look-out for signs of stress. An optimal amount of stress is good as it helps us function, but too much stress can lead to health-problems and psychological concerns.
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Some disability-related disaster stress reactions may be experienced immediately, while others may appear months later.
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Focus on maintaining close relationships. Some people with disabilities who survive a disaster experience a strong desire to withdraw from others. They may withdraw even from those to whom they are the closest, such as caregivers, and may have a changed response to assistance technology and animals. Overcoming the tendency to isolate ones self takes real strength and discipline, of the sort that many persons with disabilities are already skilled at through accommodating and managing their disabilities prior to the disaster experience.
A few ways to break the isolation barrier are to:
• TALK: It takes courage to reveal what you are thinking and feeling to someone else. Talking can be very comforting and healing. Talking helps.
• ASK FOR HELP: Research shows that people who ask for help come through disasters stronger and healthier than those who view seeking help as a weakness. Perhaps some short-term counseling (insert internal link here) may help you make sense of the experience of the disaster, and rather than be a sign of weakness this is a sign of strength.
• BE WITH PEOPLE: Stay involved with your religious or spiritual or civic communities and with any disability-specific services that are available in your area.
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Invest in self-care. Now is the time to take care of yourself, to sleep and eat and listen to music and try to resume your ordinary activities as you are able and as circumstances permit. You have survived a disaster. That doesn't mean your life is over or that you don't deserve to be happy again. Do something good for yourself.
Portions of this fact sheet are excerpted from this site. (pdf)
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Resilience and Persons with Disabilities
Many persons with disabilities have already confronted and overcome challenges, and have already had to make accommodations in maintaining their identity, relationships, and roles. They are survivors.
These survival qualities, known as resilience, refer to the ability to “bounce back” from life problems in a way that makes people stronger. Resilience in persons with disabilities seems to involve some similar influences as it does to others, and to also have some important differences.
Resiliency conditions take place along three dimensions of our experience: I AM, I CAN, and I HAVE. This fact sheet will discuss each of these as it relates to disaster recovery for persons with disabilities.
I AM refers to personal characteristics such as self-esteem, confidence, and recognition of personal strengths and assets. Many persons with disabilities have already had to reorganize and refine their experience of self-esteem as it relates to their disability, and in their response to disaster they can draw on this history of survival and character-building.
I CAN as an element of resiliency refers to recognition of not just self-esteem but self efficacy, which means the ability to DO and PERFORM survival, and recovery-related tasks. Although some disabilities may reduce physical strength or stamina or present perceptual challenges, persons with disability have important talents of wisdom and perseverance and perspective that they can bring to the disaster experience.
I HAVE refers to the supports around each of us that promote resilience. These supports are like the airbags in our cars that even when we crash can keep us from being wounded too seriously. For persons with disabilities these support systems might include access to service agencies, relationships with others, and participation in community resources.
In summary, persons with disabilities may be well suited, through their experience of confronting and accommodating their disability struggles, to endure and recover from disasters. Some additional information on resilience if found elsewhere on this website.
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Persons With Disabilities and Disaster-Related Stress
Persons with disabilities need to be aware not only of how disability may influence response to the disaster, and but of how disaster-related stress may affect disability. Elsewhere you may find information on disaster preparedness as it relates to disability. This brief fact sheet discusses disabilities and disaster-related stress.
- Stress in response to trauma such as disasters is normal.
- Stress is felt and experienced as a variety of emotions, including confusion, grief, anger, and sadness.
- Everyone experiences stress differently, and we experience different stress in response to different disasters. A person’s way of experiencing stress depends both on what happened and on what meaning the person gives to those events.
- We experience stress differently through different phases of disasters.
Disaster-related stress occurs in several phases:
- The initial impact phase, in which the focus is on survival
- The immediate post-disaster phase, in which we recoil from the effects of the disaster and begin to make sense of it
- The recovery phase, a sometimes-lengthy period of adjustment in the return to normal that the community and individuals must go through.
There are some ways in which stress may happen differently for persons with disabilities. In preparing for and responding to a disaster, consider how your disability may influence your way of responding to stress in general, and how might it influence your way of responding to a disaster. Some dimensions along which stress may occur include:
Loss of control: A common element in disability is some loss of control over circumstances, over others, and even over one’s body. Many disasters present even greater threat of loss of control, and it is important to anticipate and manage disaster-related stress accordingly.
Loss of resources: Similarly, many disabilities result in losses in income, interpersonal losses in terms of relationships within the family, workplace, and internal losses in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and energy. Many of these losses may be worsened by the experience of disaster.
Role changes: The roles we carry out form the basis of much of our self image. Even temporary loss of function can mean an alteration in the roles we can carry out, and sometimes disasters can unbalance and disrupt the way that persons with disabilities have modified and reshaped their roles.
Changes in mood: Disasters often result in changes of emotion in which people may feel nervous, anxious, angry, or depressed. Also common are irritability and rapid mood swings, which often result in outbursts toward family, friends and coworkers. Guilt feelings are also possible, especially if a person lost a loved one in the disaster. Some people may wish they had taken the place of their loved one or been there with that person. Persons with disabilities may have some similar responses to their disabilities, or their disabilities may influence their way of experiencing mood and emotion.
Physical symptoms: People experiencing disaster may report physical symptoms such as headaches, fatigue and pains, and increased anxiety. High levels of stress can weaken the immune system, which can lead to increases in illness. It is important to take into account how physical disabilities may affect and be affected by stress.
Changes in sleeping, eating, and daily routines:Disasters inevitably disrupt elements of our daily routines. People with disabilities, many of whom have already had to adjust daily living to accommodate their disabilities, may experience additional stress with disasters that disrupt these patterns of adjustment and require new ones.
Being aware of these additional stressors as they relate to disasters can help us maintain perspective and avoid additional complications.
Some of this information is adapted and modified from this site. (pdf)
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Disaster Preparedness and Persons with Disabilities
In many ways, persons with disabilities can and should prepare for disasters in the same way as do others using the preparedness resources on this website, including those on:
- Making a disaster plan
- Preparing a disaster supply kit, and
- Becoming acquainted with the principles of mental health as they relate to disaster response
There are some special considerations, however, in preparedness and preparation for people with disabilities.
- Consider in your planning how your disability may affect your response to various disasters. Conduct a personal assessment of your usual needs for assistance and your resources for meeting them, and then consider how your adaptation might change in response to a disaster. Be certain to include in your assessment such considerations as:
- Daily living needs (Do you require assistance with personal care, such as bathing and grooming? Do you use adaptive equipment to help you get dressed?)
- Personal Care Equipment (Do you use a shower chair, tub-transfer bench, or other similar equipment?)
- Adaptive Feeding Devices (Do you use special utensils that help you prepare or eat food independently?)
- Electricity-Dependent Equipment and Water Needs (How will you continue to use equipment that runs on electricity, such as dialysis, electrical lifts, and rechargeable wheelchairs?)
- Mobility and transportation (How will your disability influence your evacuation of your living space should that be required, or your coping of the debris in your home and community following the disaster? How will your transportation needs be affected?)
- Assistance needs (Do you usually require assistance in buying groceries, medications, and medical supplies? If you depend on only one person to shop or run errands for you, what will you do if the disaster has affected him or her?)
- Service Animals/Pets Will you be able to care for your animal (provide food, shelter, veterinary attention, etc.) during and after a disaster? Do you have another caregiver for your animal if you are unable to meet its needs?
2. Make a personal disaster plan that takes into consideration your disability, and give copies of this plan to your caregivers and loved ones. Keep copies of your disaster plan in your disaster supplies kit, car, wallet (behind driver’s license or primary identification card), wheelchair pack, or at work, etc. Elements of this plan should include:
- An emergency information list to let others know whom to call if they find you unconscious or unable to speak, or if they need to contact others.
- a medical information list with:
- the name and nature of your disability
- name and hospital affiliation of your primary physician
- your insurance information
- blood type and any allergies and sensitivities
- medications and dosages
- physical limitations
- adaptive equipment and vendors’ phones
- communication difficulties
- Information to aid in your self-advocacy during a disaster. Although others may be available and compassionate to your needs, you may also have to educate them about your disability and an appropriate response to it, through rehearsing or (if your disability requires it) writing down statements such as:
• ”Please take my___________ (Oxygen tank, wheelchair, gamma globulin from the freezer, insulin from the refrigerator, communication device from under the bed)
• ”Please do not straighten my knees. They are fused in a bent position.”
• ”I have had a brain injury. Please write down all important instructions and information.”
• ”I am Blind/visually impaired. Please let me grasp your arm firmly.”
• ”I am deaf. Please write things down for me.”
The best way to cope with a disaster is to learn about the challenges you might face and anticipate in advance how you could meet your personal needs in a disaster. Such preparation will help you be ready when disaster strikes, and help you achieve a self-confidence based on knowledge, preparation, and practice.
This information is adapted and modified from the excellent Red Cross pamphlet,
Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and Other Special Needs