IDD & Abuse: What Parents Can Do About it
By Nora J. Baladerian, Ph.D.
One of the worst fears parents and other caregivers experience is the mistreatment and sexual abuse of their family members with disabilities. This topic doesn’t get the attention it should. And that’s why we need more awareness of the risks and preventative measures to help parents better protect their children.
Parents and caregivers aren’t usually warned about sexual abuse by their physicians, social workers, case managers, mental health practitioners, and others with significant interaction with them. It’s rare that they’re asked about any difficulties with abuse since the last visit. In fact, patients or caregivers may not be able to bring up abuse on their own, so practitioners should ask, instead of waiting for them to mention it.
People with I/DD face more crime
It is of note that people with I/DD experience rates of abuse far exceeding those without disabilities. What do we know? Here are a few study reports:
According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, while crime has decreased for victims without disabilities from 2012 to 2019, there has been a significant increase in the number of crimes committed against victims with disabilities.
Female victims without disabilities: From 15 to 11.3 per 1000
Male victims without disabilities: From 16 to 13.4 per 1000
Female victims with disabilities: From 26 to 49.4 per 1000
Male victims with disabilities: From 23 to 42.7 per 1000
This data confirms previous research that found higher rates of abuse for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
1.7 times the rate of generic population by DHHS/NCCAN (Westat Inc.,1991)
3.4 Boystown Research Hospital (Sullivan & Knutson, 2000)
In 2012, a national study published by the Arc of Riverside County’s Disability and Abuse Project also found much higher rates of abuse for people with disabilities. A ten-year followup study will soon be underway to determine current incidence, and whether reports of abuse resulted in referrals for medical care/therapy, apprehension and litigation against perpetrators, and development of risk reduction plans for the future.
From research to realtalk
It is one thing to conduct research on the incidence and prevalence of abuse, and another to develop and deliver programs to address this problem and reduce the risk of abuse. I believe it’s important to increase knowledge about the high risk of abuse among caregivers, service providers, and responders (law enforcement, first responders, therapists, physicians, forensic nurses and physicians), and most importantly individuals with disabilities themselves.
However, providing information about the risk of abuse to parents (and other caregivers) is a delicate and difficult matter. In a recent program offered to parents in southern California, only 9 people attended in a 100-person capacity room. I remarked on this to the attendees, and they spoke up saying they struggled the weeks and days before the class between not wanting to attend and learn more about the thing they feared the most and attending to learn what they could do in the face of this terrifying possibility. Those brave attendees later said that they were glad they came, as they learned they are not completely helpless in the face of the vulnerability to abuse of their children. I applaud them.
We spoke about many things:
Who are those who abuse?
How could they know or suspect if their child had been abused?
What are the signs of abuse?
Would reports of suspected abuse be taken seriously? If so, would law enforcement be able to investigate allegations of abuse? (This is particularly difficult regarding children and adults with intellectual disabilities and limited communication skills.)
Is there anyone who can help them after abuse to heal the parents and direct victims from the trauma? Although there are some very skilled trauma therapists around the country, they are far from, and I’m not aware of specialty and ongoing training programs in college or university programs
Overcoming the barriers
During the program we discussed the importance of parents talking to their minor or adult children about abuse, in the context of talking about other dangers in their lives, like only crossing the street on a green light. I asked parents to encourage their children to let them know if they were hurt or scared when at school or anywhere else.
One barrier was discussing something children weren’t familiar with—the concept of abuse—so I told parents to encourage their children to tell them if someone hurt you or scared them (or another student/worker). I also shared that they could use images from television as examples of bad behavior. I also recommended booklets that depict hitting, yelling, kicking, and other forms of physical and verbal abuse as a way to help convey the concept for children with limited communication. Cartoons or other drawings in the general media can be used as well.
Overall, I have found that parents have not been informed that abuse is a danger, either by specialized case managers or physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals. I encourage every parent to let those who will be providing services to their children know that they are aware that abuse is not uncommon in this population, and that they would like to vet those providing services to their children with background checks. I believe that in doing so, those service providers may decide not to abuse that specific child.
I’ve worked with parents whose children have told them that they have been abused at school, but the parents were unable to believe that those lovely and dedicated service providers would hurt their child. If the child (or adult) is nonverbal, they may display their reluctance to go to the place where they are abused (school, school bus, day program, work program, etc.). I encourage parents to support their child, and allow the child not to attend when such resistance is likely their only way to communicate that they are being abused.
In one case in California the teacher of a kindergarten class of children with autism literally tackled a 5-year old child to the ground when she was in a rage, during the first days of the semester. Since the parents had been told what a wonderful school program their son would be attending, they were confused when he tearfully resisted going to school, and they insisted he go. Soon he began to have nightmares, difficulties with incontinence, losing weight, and other typical symptoms of trauma and a terror of returning to school. However, the parents called the police and the teacher’s aides confirmed the child’s complaint.
We discussed the fact that the parents did not initially believe their child, but when other parents also reported their children were having nightmares, reluctance to go to school, and other changes reminiscent of trauma, they reported the suspected abuse. In the end the teacher was arrested and charged with assault. Within a few years, another teacher in an adjoining school district behaved similarly and was also charged with child abuse and lost her teaching credential.
These cases illuminate several facts:
Abuse of children with disabilities can happen even in open settings such as a public school classroom!
When the victims are mostly nonverbal, reporting is delayed, particularly when others present, like teacher’s aides, are reluctant to report what they have seen because they fear losing their jobs and repercussions by the abusive teacher.
Abusers can be male or female. But since most are male, abuse by females may be harder to identify.
This is only one of many cases where tenured professionals abuse children or adults with disabilities because they don’t think the victims will be able to tell their parents or caregiver what happened at school or on the bus.
What parents can do
What are the lessons from such cases? We should inform parents of minor or adult children that abuse can (and does) happen when their child is away from home. Whether it’s at school, on the school bus, or other seemingly safe places like religious programs, camp, acute care and long-term hospitals, and more.
If parents were to drop in unannounced from time to time this might reduce the risk of abuse for their child. And if they ask about or request a background check on those providing direct services to their child, their child may not be abused. Parents can develop their own risk reduction plan to increase the safety of their child. Finally, they can introduce themselves to the program staff as “Abuse Aware Parents,” which may lead perpetrators to avoid harming their child in an effort to not get caught.
I believe that if every family and every provider designed a risk reduction plan for the children and adults they know, this could go a long way towards increasing the safety of the individual with a disability.
About the author:
Dr. Nora Baladerian been a leader and trailblazer in the fight against abuse of persons with disabilities for many decades. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Disability Without Abuse Project, an information resource on the abuse and criminal victimization of people with disabilities.
