A Sustainable Management Paradigm: Personal Disaster Preparadness Levels of People With Disabilities

Human or nature related disasters are usually unpredictable events of which time, place and impacts are difficult to forecast. Disasters and emergencies may have wide and severe impacts on lives regardless of individual or socio-economic distinctions of people and lead to economic, social and environmental damages. It requires a special effort and preparation process before disasters happen and cause heavy consequences for human and environment. In this preparation process, people with disabilities are thought to be a special group which should be given an extraordinary attention to. In overall disaster and emergency planning, decision makers should take people with disabilities into consideration in organizational program and policy making processes. In this study, it is aimed to measure the personal preparedness levels of individuals with disabilities living in Karabük for disasters and emergencies. A total of 322 disabled person living in Karabük was reached and surveyed about their personal disaster and emergency preparedness levels. In this survey a 33-item “Health Belief Model based Personal Disaster and Management Preparedness Scale” developed by Inal (2015) was used. As a result of the study, it has been determined that disabled individuals need special information and educational support focused on disaster and emergency situations. It was considered that taking the level and group of disabilities of people into consideration while preparing emergency plan and policies would increase the chance of success of recovery in disasters and emergencies