Preventing the Emotional Abuse and Neglect of People with Intellectual Disability

Sally Robinson is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University, Australia. She has been actively researching and working with people with disability for over 20 years. She lives in Lismore, NSW, Australia.

This is a powerful account of the emotional abuse that people with intellectual disabilities have to endure and manage in their lives... Sally Robinson has documented these stories with respect and great care. Her methodology is meticulous, and she joins a tradition of international researchers committed to putting the voice of marginalised groups into the public domain... [T]hese stories are rich and the words of people with intellectual disabilities and their families do not only inform but they rightly haunt us, as fellow citizens and as a society. Those of us who advocate on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities, whether as relatives, carers, service managers, professionals, academics, or policy makers will do well to listen and take heed.

• Acknowledgements. Foreword. Preface. Part One. Setting the Scene. 1. Gaining new understanding about abuse through the lens of lived experience. 2. What is this harm? 3. What does this mean for practice? Part Two. Stories of Lived Experience. 4. Insult and injury. 5. Systemic concerns. Part Three. Making Change and Moving Forward. 6. What do these experiences mean for other people with intellectual disability? 7. What do these experiences mean for practice and policy? 8. New insights into the problem. 9. Implications for making change. 10. Concluding remarks.