Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:30:34.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abuse of people with learning disabilities and other vulnerable adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Leila B. Cooke  and
Valerie Sinason
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Workers in the field of learning disability drew attention to the problem of sexual abuse and learning-disabled children and adults only a decade ago (Sinason, 1986; Cooke, 1989), at the same time that British society first tolerated the knowledge that non-disabled children were being abused. Although guidelines have been produced and voluntary organisations such as the National Association for the Protection from Sexual Abuse of Adults and Children with Learning Disabilies (NAPSAC), the Association for Residential Care (ARC) and Voice UK have made vital contributions, psychiatric involvement and provision is uneven (ARC & NAPSAC, 1993).

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 119 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1998 

References

Association for Residential Care & National Association for the Protection from Sexual Abuse of Adults and Children with Learning Disabilities (1993) It Could Never Happen Here! The Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Abuse of Adults with Learning Disabilities in Residential Settings. London: ARC & NAPSAC.Google Scholar
Bernal, J. & Hollins, S. (1995) Psychiatric illness and learning disability: a dual diagnosis. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 1, 138–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, H. & Craft, A. (1992) Working with the ‘Unthinkable’ – Manual on the Sexual Abuse of Adults with Learning Difficulties. London: Family Planning Association.Google Scholar
Browne, K. (1993) Violence in the family and its links with child abuse. In Clinical Paediatrics, Child Abuse (eds Hobbs, C. J. & Wynne, J. M.) pp. 149–165. London: Baillière Tindall.Google Scholar
Buckley, A. (1989) Unconscious imagery. In Mutual Respect (ed. Brandon, D.) pp. 75–89. Minehead: Good Impressions Publishing.Google Scholar
Cooke, L. B. (1989) Abuse of mentally handicapped adults. British Medical Journal, 299, 392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooke, L. B. (1990) Abuse of mentally handicapped adults. Psychiatric Bulletin, 14, 608–609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, L. B. (1995) Dealing with the unthinkable: the abuse of people with mental handicap. Italian Journal of Intellective Impairment, 8, 23–29.Google Scholar
Day, K. (1993) Crime and mental retardation: a review. In Clinical Approaches to the Mentally Disordered Offender (eds Howells, K. & Hollin, C. R.) Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Dolan, Y. M. (1991) Resolving Sexual Abuse. London: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Gilby, R., Wolf, L., Goldberg, B. et al (1989) Mentally retarded adolescent sex offenders. A survey and pilot study. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 34, 542–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glasser, M. (1988) Psychodynamic aspects of paedophilia. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 3, 121–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glasser, M. (1996) Some aspects of the role of aggression in the perversions. In Sexual Deviations (ed. Rosen, I.) (3rd edn), pp. 279–299. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hames, A. & Hyde, S. (1995) Teaching self-protection skills to sexual abuse victims who have severe and profound disabilities. NAPSAC Bulletin, September, 12–16.Google Scholar
Heal, M. (1989) In tune with the mind. In Mutual Respect (ed Brandon, D.) pp. 45–57. Minehead: Good Impressions Publishing.Google Scholar
Hollins, S., Sinason, V. & Webb, B. (1993a) Jenny Speaks Out. London: St Georges Hospital Medical School Psychiatry of Disability Department.Google Scholar
Hollins, S., Sinason, V. & Webb, B. (1993b) Bob Tells All. London: St Georges Hospital Medical School Psychiatry of Disability Department.Google Scholar
Hollins, S., Sinason, V. & Thompson, S. (1994) Individual, group and family psychotherapy. In Mental Health in Mental Retardation, Recent Advances and Practices (ed. Bouras, N.) pp. 233–244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kempton, W. (1988) Life Horizons I & II. Sex Education for Persons with Special Needs. Santa Monica, CA: James Stanfield.Google Scholar
Law Commission (1995) Mental Incapacity: Item 9 of the Fourth Programme of Law Reform: Mentally Incapacitated Adults. Report No. 231. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
McCarthy, M. & Thompson, D. (1992) Sex and the Three Rs, Rights, Responsibilities and Risks: A Sex Education Package for Working with People with Learning Difficulties. Brighton: Pavilion.Google Scholar
McCormack, B. (1991) Thinking, discourse and the denial of history: Psychodynamic aspects of mental handicap. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 8, 59–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormack, B. & Sinason, V. (1996) Mentally handicapped children and adolescents. In Group Therapy with Children and Adolescents (eds Kymissis, P. & Halperin, D.) pp. 225–243. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Asssociation.Google Scholar
Oliver, C., Murphy, G. H. & Corbett, J. A. (1987) Self-injurious behaviour in people with mental handicap: A total population study. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 31, 147–162.Google ScholarPubMed
Piggot, C. (1987) Discussion on the paper by Pantlin, A.W. Group Analysis, 20, 51–53.Google Scholar
Rosen, I. (ed.) (1979) Sexual Deviation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, R. (1994) Post-traumatic stress disorder in persons with developmental Disabilities. Community Mental Health Journal, 30, 45–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Royal College of Psychiatrists (1996) College Policy Statement on Rape, Council Report CR47. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Sinason, V. (1986) Secondary mental handicap – its relationship to trauma. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 2, 131–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinason, V. (1988) Smiling, swallowing, sickening, stupefying: the effect of abuse on the child. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 3, 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinason, V. (1993a) Mental Handicap and the Human Condition. London: Free Association Books.Google Scholar
Sinason, V. (1993b) The vulnerability of the handicapped child and adult. In Clinical Paediatrics, Child Abuse (eds Hobbs, C. J. & Wynne, J. M.) pp. 69–87. London: Baillière Tindall.Google Scholar
Sinason, V. (1995) From Abused to Abuser in Forensic Psychotherapy, Crime, Psychodynamics and the Offender Patient. Mainly Theory 2 (eds Cordess, C. & Cox, M.) pp. 371–383. London: Jessica Kingsley.Google Scholar
Sobsey, D. & Varnhagen, C. (1989) Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of People with Disabilities: Towards Prevention and Treatment. Vancouver: Centre for Human Development and Research.Google Scholar
Stokes, J. & Sinason, V. (1992) Secondary mental handicap as a defence. In Psychotherapy and Mental Handicap (eds Waitman, A. & Conboy-Hill, S.) pp. 46–59. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Turk, V. & Brown, H. (1993) The sexual abuse of adults with learning disabilities: results of a two-year incidence survey. Mental Handicap Research, 6, 193–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.