Abuse of disabled people is prevalent, speaker says

About 85 percent of mentally retarded women will be sexually abused.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- People with mental, physical and developmental disabilities are abused two to 12 times more often than the general population, said Margaret Calvey of Genesis House Domestic Violence Center in Lorain County.
About 75 percent of the women who come to Genesis House, a residential facility, have some type of disability as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act, said Calvey, a disability outreach coordinator at the center.
Calvey, speaking Wednesday at the annual luncheon to honor crime victims, said 85 percent of women with mental retardation will be sexually abused, and about half that group will be sexually abused 10 or more times.
Sponsor
The luncheon, at the MVR Restaurant, was sponsored by Help Hotline Crisis Center's Victims' Assistance Program. Calvey served as committee chairman on the Governor's MRDD Victims of Crime Task Force for Fiscal Year in 2002 and 2003, and was chairman of the Domestic Violence & amp; Disabilities Task Force of Ohio from 2000 to 2003.
She said Genesis House is the only domestic violence shelter in Lorain County and the only shelter in Ohio specifically trying to reach the disabled population.
Calvey said ADA defines a disability as any significant mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more activities of daily living.
She urged agencies to use intake procedures that help identify their clients' disabilities, and to provide training for its employees so they can better recognize and serve people with disabilities.
Understanding there's help
Also, she said, the people who need help from agencies, particularly the disabled, are most often in crisis and probably find it difficult to focus or concentrate or even understand what help is available to them. Sometimes, she said, something as simple as information brochures with bigger print can help.
Virginia Beckman, a chemical dependency counselor with the Lorain County Safe Harbor Domestic Violence Center, said that under new state law (Senate Bill 178), some mentally retarded or developmentally disabled people who are victims of crime or charged with a crime can receive the same accommodations given to child victims in juvenile proceedings and child victims testifying in criminal proceedings.
For instance, at the discretion of the presiding judge, they may be able to testify by videotape, or in a room other than the courtroom, or by deposition rather than in open court, Beckman said.
Also, she said, S.B. 178 makes it possible for an interpreter to be assigned to help an MRDD person who cannot be understood or cannot understand questioning.