A study of the lives of people with learning disabilities through the pandemic
Published: 16 November 2020
Coronavirus and people with learning disabilities: a study of the lives of people with learning disabilities through the coronavirus pandemic.
There is a new team of university researchers working in the UK.
Researchers ask people questions to find out new information.
The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has meant a lot of changes for everybody.
The researchers want to ask adults with learning disabilities about these changes and coronavirus.
They will tell the people who can make things better for people with learning disabilities what they find out.
Some adults with learning disabilities will need someone else to answer the questions on their behalf.
The researchers want to speak to family carers or paid support staff of these adults.
Before the coronavirus pandemic people with learning disabilities were more likely to have worse health, worse support, and less money than people who don’t have learning disabilities.
The researchers are being led by Professor Richard Hastings and Professor Chris Hatton
Richard works at the University of Warwick, Chris works at Manchester Metropolitan University.
What do they want to do?
The researchers want to talk to 1000 adults with a learning disability
They want to talk to 500 family carers or paid support staff of adults with a learning disability
They want to talk to these people three times over the next year.
UK Research and Innovation have paid for them to do this research.
Why do they need to do this work?
Professor Richard Hastings said there are other studies about Covid-19 but these are hard for people with a learning disability to take part in.
Their voices are not being heard by the people who make decisions about how to make things better for people.
Covid-19 can make people with learning disabilities very poorly.
So it is really important to talk to people with learning disabilities about their experiences.
The researchers will find things out.
The researchers will tell other people what they find.
They will tell people who can make things better for people with learning disabilities.
If you want to find out more about this study, you could look at this website:
covid19learningdisabilities.co.uk
This story has been written in an easy read format to make it accessible to people with learning disabilities.
First published: 16 November 2020
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