Single-Session Intervention for Abuse Awareness Among People with Developmental Disabilities

Abuse and violence against people with disabilities is a well documented problem. However, the scholarly literature contains relatively few disability-specific abuse prevention programs. Furthermore, most of these programs involve multi-session training, potentially making them inaccessible for people in rural areas. The Stopping Abuse For Everyone (SAFE) curriculum is a one-session abuse psychoeducation program for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) delivered by trained facilitators. The content covers definitions of financial, sexual, physical and verbal abuse, neglect, victim-blaming, and reporting abuse. Our anecdotal experiences with the program have been positive; however, formal data on efficacy has yet to be collected. Particular challenges include the need for well-validated outcome measures for individuals with lower functional communication skills. The SAFE curriculum shows preliminary promise as a brief psychoeducation program for individuals with ID who live in rural areas, although it may be more useful for individuals with mild and moderate ID.