Many children and adults with cognitive disabilities can not
tell you how they feel towards the weather conditions. They are for the most part unaware of
excessive cold or excessive heat. If
they dress themselves, they may not know to dress warmly when it is freezing
outside. They depend on others to
redirect them to wear warmer clothes. Many
in this population will not wear hats or gloves but with constant
reinforcement, they eventually will learn to wear them over time.
Group Home staff at residential facilities may not alert the
clients to dress accordingly, especially if it is a very busy home with more
involved cases. Staff has to make an
extra effort to make sure these clients are kept warm and safe.
In the northeast they expect temperatures to feel like it’s
10 to 20 below zero outside tonight. No
living being can withstand this degree of cold very long, not even pets. If trips have to be made, it would be
reassuring that clients go right into the warmed up vehicles and driven door to
door without too much cold exposure.
Many disabled children can not walk on ice or know how to
react on ice and they will be very uncoordinated and will fall. Proper shoes can just help so much because
this population can not coordinate themselves to balance on patches of
ice. Much precaution has to be taken to
prevent injuries.
If something looks very unusual or is not right, like seeing
an obviously disabled person struggling or alone due to the extreme cold, or
seeing a pet left outside in freezing temperatures, you should make the effort
to see if you can help in some way or call authorities.
We should all care about one another and try to help each
other. It would be a better planet if we
do.
