'We're on our own': how the pandemic isolates families of disabled children | Brian O'Hagan

Families of children with special educational needs are resilient, but the Covid-19 crisis has hit our support systems hard

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Families of children with special educational needs and disabilities are a resilient and resourceful group of people. Many of the qualities required to endure the coronavirus pandemic – vigilance, self-containment and mutual aid – are basic skill sets to parent carers. Whether at school, work or in community life, we are past masters at social distancing and social isolation.

Our families have poorer physical and mental health than most. We earn less, have higher household costs, are more isolated, and break up and break down more. Somehow, perhaps because we have no choice, we manage to endure.

Ours is also a vulnerable group – not just to the virus itself, but to the social and economic consequences of the pandemic.

Related: UK coronavirus rules relaxed for people with autism and learning disabilities

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ejyjO2