WWILD has been providing counselling since 1994 to people with intellectual and learning difference. There are a number of reports that have been written over the years in the organisation that are available if you contact us.
In our work we see that people experience high rates of violence, abuse and victimisation. Wilson and Brewer (1992) state that people with an intellectual disability experience violence, exploitation and crime at a rate of 4 – 10 times higher than people without a disability. Chenoweth (1995 in French 2007) argues that people experience high rates of crime, abuse and assaults because they live in environments which support this behaviour. Sobsey (1994) says that sexual assaults are 4 times that of people without a disability. The important message in Sobsey’s (1994) work is that he shows that people are trained from an early age to do what they are told when they are told and this makes they very very vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and exploitation. We agree with this position, and see that were you live impacts on your safety and we see that people are vulnerable when they live in the community and in group or institutional housing. From our relationships with people we would also argue that for many people violence has been a part of their whole lives and therefore is normal or normative. This means that people do not have the language or knowledge to position their experience as abuse or violence. What keeps people safe are strong functional healthy relationships and they are uncommon for the women who access counselling at WWILD. However we also know that this alone will not always keep a person safe.
Often the first indicator an assault or trauma for people we work with is that there is a change in their behaviour. In our experience we often see that people are labelled as having challenging behaviour when in fact they are displaying behaviour that is telling information about abuse, rape, trauma, grief and sadness in their lives. The rates of dual diagnosis of people with an intellectual disability and mental illness are extreme in this population, with estimates that 75% people have experience both. In the past people with intellectual disability have not been seen as fully human and therefore without the full range of human emotions. This means that they have not typically been offered counselling by mainstream counsellors. Bender (1994) argues that people have not been offered counselling because they do not experience the full range of human emotion. Thankfully we are more aware of people’s emotional and psychological needs today and there are an ever increasing number of mainstream counsellors seeking to work with this client group.
- People are concrete thinkers and so to work effectively with them, things will need to be broken down to concrete concepts – using abstract ideas has no meaning to people. Things like time, rights, justice are all abstract ideas so need to be explained in concrete terms.
- People often have a very limited range of emotional literacy and will need to be supported to identity and name feelings.
- People often lack control over their own lives to make meaningful change and often parents, family, siblings, partners or disability staff
will draw people back into patterns of behaviour that is not always functional.
- It takes a long time to work with people – so they need extended times for counselling and over many months/years.
- It is important to be authentic and accept people as who they are,
understanding the social structures that constrict and often control their
lives.
This a brief introduction to some of the techniques used at WWILD for individual counselling for more detailed information please contact us.
Hayes (2006) advocates for the use of Cognitive Behavioural Techniques for people with intellectual disabitlies. In our experience this technique is useful if it is broken down to its simplest components and you adjust your language and use of naming emotions to the level at which the person is at.
Narrative counselling is used by the current WWILD Counsellor as her practice framework. This technique supports people as storytellers who make meaning of their live within the discourse available to them. The Dulwich Centre - www.dulwichcentre.com.au/ provides a great range of resources and information if you are interested in this practice. Women find this method useful as they are able to explain their lives within the language available to them without feeling judged.
Sandpit play is also used by our counsellor and is very successful for the women who access counselling. When people have limited language or expressive language getting them to express their feelings through play is a useful way of gaining a picture of what the experience of a person is for a therapist. It is often used with children and is useful for women we work with not because they are eternal children, but because they often have a limited range of language and words to describe emotions. This American website contains some useful articles on sandpit play www.sandplay.org/about_sandplay.htm
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a useful technique in working with people because it builds on their capacity to accept and commit to their lives without demanding movement from them. Once again it needs to be presented to them at their level. It is useful because people often have limited power and control over their lives and so if they are counselled with techniques that seek to change them and their circumstances – this is often unachievable. A technique that enables them to be where they are without struggle can open up their lives to at peace where they are at. If you are looking for information
www.actmindfully.com.au/acceptance_&_commitment_therapy
Being creative is very important in working with our women. If you can’t say it can you draw it (Spencer, 2007) is a way of supporting people to show you the feelings that they may not have the words to describe. Robinson (2009) found that the use of doing a narrative collage is useful and we have used this technique in both research and counselling with the women who come to WWILD. Visual techniques - Using feelings cards or other kinds of therapeutic cards that give people the opportunity to pick an image of what they are feeling and explain it to you.
Bender, M., 1993, “The unoffered chair; the history of therapeutic disdain towards people with learning difficulty” Clinical Psychology Forum, Issue 54: pp 7-12.
Chenoweth, L. 1995 in French, P. 2007, "Disabled Justice: the barriers to justice for persons with disability in Queensland" Queensland Advocacy Incorporated.
Hayes, S. 2006, "Cognitive behavioural therapy for people with ID who are victims of crime – can it be accessed and does it work?" 5th World Congress of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies, Barcelona, 11-14 July 2007
Jackson, R, O’Connor, M & Chenoweth, L. 2006, "Journeys of Exclusion" Community Living Association, Brisbane.
Mitchell, A. & Clegg, J. 2005, "Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder a helpful concept for adults with intellectual disability?" Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. Vol 49 552-559
Mitchell, A., Clegg, J., Furniss, F. 2006, “Exploring the Meaning of Trauma with Adults with Intellectual Disabilities” Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 19. pp. 131–142
Rapley, M. 2004, "The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability" Murdock University, WA
Spencer, M. 2007, "Beyond Measure: Assessing the support needed by parents with intellectual disability" University of Sydney, Sydney.
Sobsey, D. 1994, "Violence and abuse in the lives of people with disabilities: The end of silent acceptance?" Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.
Wilson, C. & Brewer, N. 1992, “The incidence of criminal victimization of individuals with an intellectual disability” Australian Psychologist, 27:. 714-26.
Sandra Seymour © 2010.
WWILD Sexual Violence Prevention Program is funded by the Department of Communities, QLD.
& the WWILD Victims of Crime Disability Training Program is funded by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, QLD.
SVP - Phone: (07) 3262 9877 | VOC - Phone (07) 3862 4066
Email: info@wwild.org
