Ohioans with developmental disability face extra challenges during pandemic

Families and support workers are doing all they can to help people with developmental disabilities manage isolating effects of the coronavirus outbreak  (Source: “‘We made it through today’: Coronavirus adds to issues for those with developmental disabilities,” Columbus Dispatch, March 20, 2020).

Government and private agencies that serve people with disabilities say they are doing all they can to deploy crucial front-line workers and services, even as schools and other day programs for adults scale back or shut down. The stress on those workers and on the families at home is enormous.

“One of the most critical needs that can’t be met” is behavioral needs, said Erin Nealy, executive director of Bridgeway Academy, a Columbus nonprofit education and therapy center for children with autism and developmental disabilities. “We have families who were already in crisis, with behavioral and medical concerns, even before this began.”