Disabled people disproportionately affected after disasters - research

Wednesday, 22 December 2021

New research has uncovered wide inequalities in how disabled people are disproportionately affected following disasters.

The study from the Burwood Academy Trust, the University of Canterbury, and the Canterbury District Health Board examined 10 years of data from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority’s Wellbeing Survey.

It looked at the longer-term health, wellbeing, and sense of community for disabled people following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

Dr Johnny Bourke, one of the study’s authors and a disability researcher at the Burwood Academy Trust, said they confirmed a concerning “gap” in how people with disabilities fared after disasters.

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Dr Johnny Bourke and Professor Philip Schluter.

Using the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes as a case study, the researchers found people with disabilities carried a disproportionately higher burden of poor quality of life and wellbeing, and increased stress compared to their non-disabled counterparts.

People with disabilities faced increased barriers when accessing housing and community services, and maintaining social connections.

“Overall, there was a big difference over the 10 years of disabled people having a worse time and having worse outcomes,” Bourke said.

The study “shone a light” on the fact a big group of people in Canterbury and New Zealand “do not have equal opportunity”.

Nearly one in five people in Christchurch alone self-report that they have some current physical or psychological disability.

Bourke said the study’s sobering findings were a chance to “really shake up the status quote as building an inclusive society for disabled people benefits everybody”.

The study, which has been published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, also found there appeared to be no difference in the sense of community felt by both disabled and non-disabled immediately after the earthquakes – but that fell away for disabled people a couple of years later.

Greater stress, and reduced quality of life and wellbeing continued to this day, and disabled people now had significantly less sense of community than non-disabled people, the study found.

Bourke said it was important to “build an accessible and inclusive community and society”.

“Disaster contexts give us a really great opportunity to build back better – and not just physical infrastructure, but better systems, better services, and better social and political environments,” he said.

“But a key part of a successful, inclusive recovery is making sure disabled people are completely involved in the decision-making.”