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 White Plains, NY - A person with a disability can be especially vulnerable to domestic abuse. To document the problem, Westchester County is surveying those organizations that work with disabled men and women.
A collaboration of the Westchester County offices for Women and for the Disabled, the survey is the first step to help disabled victims of domestic violence and to raise awareness of this silent crime.
The survey has been sent to police departments, elected officials and organizations that work with disabled people, veterans, the elderly and victims of abuse. It may also be found by logging on to www.westchestergov.com/women and clicking on “Domestic Violence.”
There are nearly 140,000 people over age 16 in Westchester with at least one type of disability, according to 2000 Census figures. Although both disabled men and women can become victims of abuse from a partner, family member or caregiver, the scant research available has focused only on women. According to a study by the Colorado Department of Health, 85 percent of women with disabilities have experienced abuse at some point in their lives. Other research suggests that a little over half of disabled women have been abused.
Camille Murphy, director of the Office for Women said, “If we apply the estimates of abuse to the over 74,000 disabled women in Westchester, the frightening result is that thousands and thousands of disabled women could be trapped in an abusive situation.” “I know from experience that people with disabilities accept all kinds of hardships in their daily lives,” said Evan Latainer, director of the Westchester County Office for the Disabled, “but domestic abuse is not a hardship. It’s a crime that needs to be stopped.”
Domestic violence is usually defined as one intimate partner establishing power and control over another intimate partner. However, people with disabilities can be especially vulnerable to abuse from anybody they must rely on for assistance with their daily needs, whether it be a family member or care provider. Tactics of abuse may include isolation, physical or sexual violence, emotional or psychological abuse or financial exploitation. For example, a perpetrator of abuse might withhold a victim’s medications or communication devices, threaten to put them in a nursing home or remove them from medical insurance, abuse their service animal if they’re blind, leave them unattended or in a dangerous place, and mislead police or others about their condition, medications, or actions.
Other organizations that sent the survey to their constituents are the Westchester County Domestic Violence Council; New York Connects: Westchester Choices for Long Term Care; Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services, and the Westchester Disabilities Advocacy Partnership.
For more information on the survey or resources on domestic violence call Annette Alve at the Office for Women, (914) 995-5972.
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