Impact of COVID 19 on People with learning disabilities
The coronavirus pandemic has a lot of impacts on people with intellectual disabilities. It is well known that people with learning disabilities are prone to have health and mental illness since COVID 19 is associated with depression, stress, and anxiety disorders. The pandemic has disrupted people with learning disabilities who, in their daily lives, struggle in finding safe and reliable home care by adapting the measures of coronavirus. This paper aims at challenges faced by people with learning disabilities and the changes that can be made to help improve the supportive care for individuals with learning disabilities.
The use of personal protective equipment in preventing the spread of coronavirus has disrupted the aspect of communication among the intellectually disabled individuals since it changes their speech and hides part of their face. This has led to increased anxiety and has impacted the nature of communication among them. This equipment has increased distress and behavior change among people with learning disabilities since they cannot cope with the coronavirus pandemic changes. Additionally, there may be an increase in social and health risks.
The COVID 19 has led to conflicting information among the intellectual disabled. They feel confused about the situation since they cannot tell which is the fake news and which is the best guide to take and the compulsory measures for minimizing the spread of the virus (Courtenay 12 ). Most of them adhere to the stay at home rule even when they don’t understand why. This makes them frustrated as they cannot socialize with their families and friends as this was a method for them
to cope with anxiety levels before the coronavirus pandemic. This has made them feeling lonelier than before since they cannot access their social groups and clubs that enables them to mingle with their friends.
Another impact on people with learning disabilities is that they cannot quickly adapt to life in social isolation soon since most people, organizations, and self- advocacy groups work from home. The direct meeting has been canceled. This has made life difficult for them since they cannot access the support they need from the members of the social groups. The coronavirus has made these groups turn into video calls through facetime and WhatsApp as the modes of getting in touch with this member, and this has posed a challenge to those who were not digitally included.
The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically impacted people with learning disabilities hence the need to improve the support they require. The community learning teams for people with learning disabilities should ensure they work with their families to curb the anxieties and help them understand how the coronavirus has impacted the way they used to interact with their families. Besides, the teams have a role in providing excellent advice and support (Frankova 2 ). They should also be given the correct information on COVID 19 so that when using personal protective equipment like face masks, they will feel more comfortable and adapt to social isolation.
In conclusion, these are challenging times to all and mostly to people with learning disabilities. It is hoped that the challenge this individual faces should be minimized. Their family members and caregivers should work with the community disabilities team to address any CORONAVIRUS ISSUE.
References
Courtenay, Ken, and Bhathika Perera. “COVID-19 and People with Intellectual Disability: impacts of a pandemic.” Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine (2020): 1-21.
Frankova, Helena. “The impact of COVID-19 on people with autism, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions.” Nursing And Residential Care 22.6 (2020): 1-3.