Rural Disability Awareness Project (RDAP) Webinar

1. Rural Disability Awareness Project (RDAP)Webinar Supported by Verizon Foundation

3. Overview of Webinar Topics • Overview of literature • Brief history • Current domestic violence responses • Services • Policy • Education • What is missing? • How do we begin to fill the gap? • Rethink categorical responses • Create responses to victim harm and need • Broaden independence thinking and action to include economics and self care

4. Key Findings from Literature Disabled victims and those at risk are effected by: • Overlooked and underserved needs • Negative impact on health and well-being • Misunderstood differences in abuse experiences

5. Literature con’tUnmet Needs • Policy revision • Changes in social attitudes and context for disabled victims • Improvements in on-line safety • Research to inform understanding and new rural approaches

6. Abuse Unique to DisabilityLiterature Continued • Threats of institutionalization • Withholding items necessary for health and survival • Neglect • Perpetrator may be a health care provider • Limited accessibility of DV services and supports • Communication barriers (e.g. no sign language interpreter) • Physical dependence limits safety options

7. Literature on recommendations to inform action We would suggest that the literature does not yet contain creative, rural-relevant responses

8. Key Points Of Domestic Violence History • Primarily restricted to sanctioned male dominance over females until contemporary times • Emergence of industrial revolution brought economic subordination of women as men worked in remunerative contexts and women did not • 1829 domestic violence outlawed in UK but convictions were rare • 1871 wife beating outlawed in 2 states in the US • Not until the 1960s was domestic violence acknowledged as a gendered problem of male power over females

9. Today • Expansion of harm consequences beyond women is in it's infancy, but is critical for thinking about the relationship among dependence, cultural sanction and abuse

10. Disability History Key Points • In ancient contexts, disability as a category did not exist but atypical people were met with primarily negative responses • Religious thinking of the middle ages influenced responses to atypical individuals in diverse ways: pity, charity, exclusion, attribution of sin • Enlightenment thinking brought scientism to analysis of the body and creation of standards and norms

11. Disability: 20th and 21st Century • Medical dominance over the body rendered disability a medical deficit to be treated by professionals • In the 1980s, theorists proposed the social model of disability which suggested that negative stereotypes, attitudes and barriers were the seat of disability, not the body • Current models view disability as a complex interaction of bodies and contexts: disjuncture • Responses informed by disjuncture can be complex and powerful in creating positive social change

12. Domestic Violence And Disability Key Points • Myths and negative stereotypes left disabled individuals out of domestic violence services • Limited access to standard environments exclude disabled bodies from shelters, services and other responses • Expanding the understanding of domestic violence as perpetrated against dependent individuals is nascent and powerful in helping us to think and act broadly

13. The Rural Challenge • Limited resources • Large distances • Weapons • Myth of lower crime rates • Limited transportation • Limited connectivity • Close knit communities (e. g. underreporting) • Economic challenges: scarcity of jobs etc. • Limited self care resources

14. Current Responses:Services • Identify harm activity as the basis for victim response: causes typically follow the power and control framework • Harm consequences: trauma treatment, removal and criminal justice • Disabled victims are left out of typical services, sent to rehabilitation, or not recognized as victims

15. Current Responses: Policy • Specialized Legislation

16. Current Responses: Education • Public awareness • Pre-service education • Social networking for innovation

17. What is Missing • Recognition of disabled victims • Full access • Responses that rethink independence to include self care • Attention to rural geographies

18. From the Service PerspectiveWhat Can Be Done Now? Rethink assessment: responsive to disabled victims • Expand to consider rurality and functional limitations Treatment and intervention for individual victims • Begin with harm as the basis for all intervention • Focus on economic and self care independence, and safety • Connect individuals with appropriate resources From a broader community perspective • Evaluate current community resources and limitations- and collaborate on new approaches • Create solutions that consider the unique needs of rural areas

19. Reporting Abuse • Mandated Reporting in Maine, New Hampshire, & Vermont for certain professionals • Become informed about legal and moral reporting responsibilities • Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)

20. Now What? • Identify harm. Consider the areas of vulnerability created by the disabling circumstance in rural contexts before dismissing consequences which do not fit within typical conceptualizations of harm • If the explanations fit with legitimate victimization, seek a relevant response. If none exists, it is timely and critical to develop informed approaches to protect the safety and liberty of all citizens including rural disabled individuals • Respond through establishing independence opportunities: economic and self care • Collaborate: dialog leads to innovation!!!! (http://rdap.astos.org)