World Report on Disability, Intellectual Disabilities, and Disaster Preparedness:CostaRica as a Case Example

Abstract

The World Report on Disability relates concerns about the experiences of individuals with intellectual disability in disaster situations. Disaster planning related to people with intellectual disability needs to consider that (1) they experience disproportionate risk in disaster situations, (2) they are often excluded from relief processes and are disadvantaged in disaster support situations, (3) they may need specialized disability-related supports, (4) they often have needs for assistive technology and special rehabilitative services, (5) family and community networks are important supports in disaster situations, and (6) during recovery, rebuilding should be inclusive and include disability needs. Thus, people with intellectual disabilities are more likely to need additional assistance during evacuation, experience more tangible losses during disaster, and require more intensive support in the recovery phase following disaster. Enabling access to mainstream systems and services, improving human resource capacity, and providing adequate funding for recovery and disaster mitigation are strategies to increase disaster resilience for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Costa Rica is one country that has designed emergency disaster management policies and incorporated disability rights policies that cut across governmental functions and promote interagency cooperation. Having such policy structures and legislative supports are advantageous for people with intellectual disability, whose support needs often cut across different functional areas.

People with Disabilities and Disasters

“…The World Report on Disability (World Health Organization and World Bank, 2011) provides implementation guidelines for CRPD, but country-specific practices and policies vary (Stough, 2015). The CRPD has influenced disability-related disaster guidelines through The Sphere Project (Kett & van Ommeren, 2009;Sphere, 2011) in which people with disabilities are a "cross-cutting theme."…”

Social Determinants of Health, Disaster Vulnerability, Severe and Morbid Obesity in Adults: Triple Jeopardy?

“…The characteristics and situation of a person or group are affected by the physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes [ 2 ] creating access blockages or limitations to a variety of different resources. There is increasing evidence that people who have existing vulnerabilities are at greater risk during and following disaster [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. More recently there has been a shift in the literature to include positive narratives of people and communities’ capacities for self-protection, adaptation and for mobilized common effort [ 15 , 49 , 50 , 51 ].…”

“…The social dimensions of vulnerability involve the ability of individuals, groups, organisations or societies to withstand impacts, in this case from disaster. Groups previously identified as being more vulnerable in disasters include: people with disabilities (including those with intellectual disability) [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 58 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ] older people [ 45 , 58 , 74 ] people with severe mental illness [ 6 , 75 ] people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds [ 45 , 76 ] people with chronic medical conditions [ 6 , 10 , 45 ] children [ 45 , 77 ] women [ 78 , 79 ] …”

“…people with disabilities (including those with intellectual disability) [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 58 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]…”

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Persons with Disabilities

“…Disasters often serve to compound existing societal attitudes in societies where people with disabilities are devalued, ostracized, or excluded, particularly when there is competition for scarce resources, as in disaster contexts (Mitchell and Karr 2014). Furthermore, the needs of individuals with disabilities must be understood within specific national and geographical contexts to understand how to implement policy (Stough 2015). These multiple factors should be considered in developing disaster risk reduction policies and practices that are in line with international agreements on the rights of people with disabilities.…”