Research highlights COVID-19 challenges faced by people with learning disabilities

Professor Stuart Todd

The first findings from a UK study on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on people with learning disabilities have been published.

Professor Stuart Todd, of the University of South Wales (USW), has worked with colleagues from across the UK on the project, which has involved talking directly to people with learning disabilities to understand the challenges they have faced during the pandemic.   

Leading the Welsh arm of the study, which was funded by UK Research and Innovation and started last September, Prof Todd has worked alongside his colleague Dr Edward Oloidi, and also with Dr Steve Beyer from Cardiff University. 

They have been supported by three major Welsh organisations - All Wales People First, Learning Disability Wales, and the All Wales Forum of Parents and Carers of People with a Learning Disability.

The research has focused specifically on people with learning difficulties, who may have found it difficult to take part in other studies of the pandemic’s impact or whose voices may not have been heard.

During the first phase of the project, across the four UK nations 621 adults with learning disabilities told the researchers about their lives during COVID-19. In addition, family carers or paid support staff completed an online survey for another 378 people with learning disabilities. About one in four who took part were living in Wales.

The research found: 

• About half of the people with learning disabilities had a health condition that made them or their carers worry about a coronavirus infection,
• More than 60% of people with learning disabilities who had routinely seen healthcare professionals before the first lockdown in March 2020 had seen them less or not at all since then.
• 80% of people with learning disabilities in Cohort 1 were concerned about their family or friends catching COVID-19. This was a larger percentage than the people who were worried about catching it themselves (66%).

Other findings have included:

• Day services and community activities have stopped for most people with learning disabilities,
• Many people worried about what effect the pandemic would have for their employment prospects,
• Lots of people with learning disabilities reported that they often felt lonely or sad and down during lockdown,
• Most people with learning disabilities would take the COVID-19 vaccine if it was offered to them.

Prof Todd said: “People with learning disabilities have been more exposed to the virus and many have died.  

“We can now see clearly that almost every area of life for people with learning disabilities has been affected and this has raised their anxieties, and those of their family carers, to new levels. 

“They have greater health needs than other people and this study shows how difficult it has been to access health care and other forms of support during a pandemic.”

The research results will be shown to people who can change things to make life better for people with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities, family members, and the researchers, will do this together.

The data from the people living in Wales will soon be available for separate comment and discussion.

The next phase of research interviews will be starting later this month.