18 Young Women & Disability
Description
This article is from the Essays on the topic of Women and Disability.
18 Young Women & Disability
Empowered Adolescents. A Self-Help Prevention Framework For
Adolescents At Risk
by Traci Walters
Youth with disabilities are our most powerful tools for great
change, yet they are at risk. Many children with disabilities in
this country are extremely vulnerable to physical, sexual, and
emotional abuse, neglect and deprivation. Many children and
adolescents with disabilities grow up living in foster homes and
institutions, subject to personal care from hundreds of
strangers throughout their lives.
The complete lack of sexual education for children with
disabilities is alarming. Society simply does not want to deal
with the fact that everyone needs appropriate education on their
bodily parts, functions, and sexuality. Without it, children are
vulnerable to learning only what abusers may want to coerce them
into learning. This is probably one of the reasons why abuse runs
rampant within the walls of foster homes, institutions, group
homes, and family environments.
I once heard that when someone walks up behind us and gets
within a certain radius of our spine, we naturally tense up,
shiver, and quickly turn around. Our instincts tell us that there
could be danger--a stranger may be behind us. Move!
After years of having caregivers and family members moving
freely all around them, children and youth with disabilities
learn to let their defences down. Their natural instincts fade
and disappear. When their territory is invaded, the message is
often not transmitted that danger is lurking. Thus, our children
and youth with disabilities are prime targets for abusers. It is
easy for the perpetrator to think, "who is going to believe them
anyway?" And, people with disabilities who report abuse are
generally classified as trouble makers. It is not only the
caregivers who have this attitude, but also the police, courts,
agencies, etc.
The child or youth with a disability who has been abused might
have difficulty speaking, may be non-verbal, or may have low
literacy skills. He or she may have been labelled
developmentally disabled. In these circumstances, the victims
often simply do not stand a chance. If the child or youth does
report the abuse, they may expose themselves to still more
abuse--perhaps of different kinds. This time, they could be left
sitting and waiting for hours on end because they are now being
neglected or deprived of personal care as a result of their
disclosure. Maybe the care giver decides not to feed them on
time, leaving the child with hunger pains. Or maybe they are
placed in a room facing a wall with no ability to move their
wheelchair. Equally devastating abuses can be inflicted on
children with intellectual, psychiatric, or developmental
disabilities. Abuse of any kind can lead to self-blame, shame,
guilt, low self-confidence, low self-esteem, and a feeling of
complete powerlessness.
The Independent Living Movement empowers people with
disabilities to take control over their lives, to make their own
decisions, to be offered options, and to take risks. Independent
Living Resource Centres are consumer controlled organizations
where people with any type of disability work with each other to
find solutions, to work their way through the "system," and to
provide support to each other. It is a unique place in the
community which is run by and for people with disabilities. For
many people it is a safe haven.
Many cases of abuse of people with disabilities are brought to
the attention of the Independent Living Resource Centres. The
Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC) is
responding to this need by delivering a national outreach
project to promote primary prevention of family violence and
abuse of persons with a disability in Canada. Three major
objective areas for this jointly funded Health and Welfare
Canada and Secretary of State initiative will be to coordinate
both national and local resources towards: 1) instituting a
national Train-The-Trainer Prevention Program; 2) developing an
Independent Living Self Help Prevention model for adolescents who
have a disability; 3) testing and promoting a rural outreach
prevention model for adults and seniors living in rural and
isolated regions.
CAILC is co-ordinating and implementing the development of a
community prevention framework to prevent family violence and
abuse of adolescents who have a disability. By utilizing
Independent Living self-help methodologies, in parallel with
inter-agency and interdisciplinary collaborations, this project
will develop a model for community prevention that may be
transferred from community to community across Canada.
The philosophy of the Independent Living Movement encourages
self-help, peer intervention, individual empowerment skills
development, research and development. People with disabilities
are best able to define our own needs, recognize what is making
us vulnerable, and change the environment around us to remove
ourselves from risk. We need to educate adolescents with
disabilities and give them the ability to identify abuse and
protect themselves through personal empowerment and self-help.
If you would like more information on this project, please
contact the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres,
350 Sparks Street, Suite 1004, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 7S8.
Traci Walters is presently the National Director of the Canadian
Association of Independent Living Centres. She lives with a
chronic illness (Still's Disease) and is the mother of two small
children.
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