Social Work, Strengths Perspective, and Disaster Management: Roles of Social Workers and Models for Intervention

Effects of Support on Evacuation Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities

“…The study findings are consistent with the strengths and community approaches in social work (Tan & Yuen, 2013). Although persons with a disability might be less able to participate in their communities than those without a disability, social support is accessible for many persons with a disability.…”

“…Social work emphasizes social justice and the development and sharing of resources needed after severe community stressors, such as natural and human-caused disasters (Tan & Yuen, 2013). For social workers, social justice involves distributive justice.…”

“…In this section, we first examine research on persons with a disability in disaster. Next, we discuss the strengths, empowerment, and community approaches in social work (Tan & Yuen, 2013), as well as disaster vulnerability and resilience concepts as the foundation for understanding the disability population in disasters. In the following sections of this article, we use a disaster vulnerability and resiliency framework (Gillespie, 2010).…”

“…Connections among individuals and families, as well as among individuals and communities, are a vital part of recovery and resiliency (Pescosolido, 2001). The strengths of individuals and families, and the assets of groups and communities, are amplified in importance in these approaches (Tan & Yuen, 2013). Through empowering individuals with disabilities, these individuals and groups have more equitable access to more abundant and higher quality resilience resources.…”

“…people with a disability to more effectively prepare for a disaster evacuation (Stough, 2009;Tan & Yuen, 2013). However, it is not known which types of supports are the most important in promoting higher levels of evacuation preparedness.…”