Advantages of Hiring UIUX Design Service Providers for Your Business
Safety Planning
1. Safety Planning with
Individuals with Disabilities
Sara Zesski – New Jersey Coalition for Battered
Women
Erica Olsen, M.S.W. – The National Network to End
Domestic Violence
2. Topics for Today
Risks to Leaving
Risk Assessment
Safety Plan Elements
3. Key Terms
Safety planning is the process of
supporting a survivor to identify resources
and precautions that will help him or her
avoid revictimization.
Danger assessment is the process of
gathering information to determine level of
danger.
Disability is a product of an interaction
between characteristics (e.g., conditions or
impairments, functional status, or personal
and social qualities) of the individual and
characteristics of the
natural, built, cultural, and social
environments.
4. Safety Planning
Guideline should:
◦ Consider environment and social barriers
◦ Support and encourage self determination
◦ Consider the diversity of the person’s
needs
◦ Be developed together with the survivor
◦ Prioritize safety, needs and wants
5. Abuser-Generated Risks to
Leaving
Physical Injury
Psychological Harm
Child-Related Risks
Financial Risks
Risk to Family and Friends
Loss of Relationship
Risk Involving Arrest or Legal Status
6. Life-Generated Risks to
Leaving
Financial
Home Location
Physical and Mental Health
Discrimination based on
race, gender, sexual orientation
7. Risk/Danger Assessment
Create a safe place
Don’t make about assumptions their
disability
Start with the survivor’s questions and
concerns
Validate what the person is saying
Use simple concrete language and
avoid jargon
8. Risk/Danger Assessment
Don’t pretend to understand if you
don’t
Ask about abuser and life generated
risks
Survivor is the ‘expert’ of perpetrator’s
behavior and their own needs
9. Risk/Danger Assessment
Understand that there may be other
things on their mind besides the abuse
Talk to them about what makes them feel
safe and unsafe
Ask about where and when abuse
occurs
Remember that they have experienced
trauma and may not ‘react’ to things the
way you expect
10. Preparing for Safety Planning
Have they had a safety plan before?
What worked?
What didn’t?
Is their disability status the same or
different from last time?
12. Living with the Abuser Living in a Group Setting
Do you feel unsafe at Where does the abuse
home? occur? Are other people
Do you have children? in the home at that time?
Do you have a plan with What can you do to avoid
them to stay safe? being alone with the
Does the abuser meet abuser?
any of your daily needs Which people in the
(i.e. bathing, toileting)? house do you trust?
Staff? Fellow residents?
Safety at Home
13. Standard Safety Planning Disability Concerns
What are the warning Survivor may not pick up
signs that abuse may on social cues depending
occur? on the disability.
S/he may not trust their
What happens when you own instincts due to
are scared? compliance issues.
Include not only the
layout of the home, exits
Where does the abuse
and open areas but
occur?
which areas are
accessible or not.
During a Violent Incident
14. Standard Safety Planning Disability Concerns
What knives, guns or other things This issue can be much
can be used to hurt you? Where broader, especially if person
are they? depends on perpetrator for
personal care.
Who is your network of support? Discuss
friends, family, neighbors, other
service providers and the reality
of being able to help in an
How would you let them know emergency.
you needed help? Consider a person’s mobility and
communication devices, how will
they get help without them?
During a Violent Incident
15. Standard Safety Planning Disability Concerns
Are you thinking about Transportation can be
leaving? What do you complex and often takes
think will happen if you pre-scheduling.
leave? Can the place they want
to go accommodate their
Where are you planning disability needs?
to go? Stress importance of
having those supports.
Who are the people that
you trust to help you?
Getting Ready to Leave
16. Standard Safety Planning Disability Concerns
Do you have your own If the abuser is the
bank account? If not, set representative
one up. payee, contact Social
If they receive benefits – Security Administration to
do you know how much change it.
your benefits are? Do
you have an award If abuser is primary
letter? caregiver, consider a
time that may be safe for
someone else to help
Prepare items you need
to take with you when him/her pack belongings
you leave. and hold them.
Getting Ready to Leave
17. GETTING READY TO
LEAVE
Disability Concerns
Is your abuser your caregiver? Explore alternative
options to getting your needs met.
What kind of assistive technology do you use?
What are the must haves? Where can you get
replacements or loans if you have to leave with it?
What types of medications do you take and how
much? Can these be left with someone else? Do
you know where you can get refills?
18. Standard Safety Planning Disability Concerns
Do you go to work or Discuss how they get to
school? and from job/school.
Does the abuser know Explore possibilities of
where these are? changing work/school
Are there times when locations.
you are alone on the
job/school? Talk with supervisors
about changing
Decide who you will
inform of your situation. schedules or job duties.
Devise a plan for arriving Consider accessibility of
and leaving a building. the entrances or exits.
Safety on at Job/School
19. Safety with a Protective Order
Do you have a restraining order or are
you thinking of getting one?
Who knows that you have one?
Consider who should get a copy of it.
Make a plan for what to do if abuser
does not obey the order.
Keep it with you at all times!
20. Concluding the Safety Planning
Process
Ask the survivor if he/she has any
further concerns or questions
Review the key points of the plan
Discuss the need and safety factors of
taking a written or electronic copy of
the plan
21. Concluding the Safety Planning
Process
Discuss items that require follow up by
either the survivor or you
Consider discussing possible
scenarios and what they would do in
that situation
22. Tips for Advocates When Supporting an
Individual with a Disability
Ask the survivor about specific
physical and attitudinal barriers they
face
Present materials in a clear, concise
manner
Be aware of your own assumptions
about the survivor’s ability and
disability
Allow extra time to understand
complicated choices
23. Tips for Advocates When Supporting an
Individual with a Disability
Use opened questions to gather more
information
Confirm with the survivor that they
understand the plan
Listen to the survivor’s ideas about
risks and resources
Consider involving other agencies in
the process if safe and confidential
24. References
Joanne Berman, Eileen Dombo, Roy Froemming, Dianne
Greenley, Holly Ramsey-Klawsnik, Leslie Myers and Christine
White. Widening the Circle: Sexual Assault/Abuse and People with
Disabilities and the Elderly. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Coalition
Against Sexual Assault, Fall 1998.
Carrie Frasier, Linda Mintzer, Cindi Black, Mary Ann Gainey and
Linda Spies. Open Minds, Open Doors. Denver, Colorado: National
Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Denver, Colorado: Domestic
Violence Initiative for Women with Disabilities, 1996.
Jill Davies, Eleanor Lyon and Diane Monti-Catania. Safety Planning
with Battered Women. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE
Publications, 1998.
Volunteers of Finex House. Escape: A Handbook for Battered
Women with Disabilities. Jamaica Plan, Massachusetts: Finex
House.
Serving Crime Victims with Disabilities. DVD. Office for Victims of
Crime, 2009.
Domestic Violence Danger Assessment and Safety Planning – An
Interactive Training DVD. DVD. Emerge Counseling and Education
to Stop Domestic Violence.
Hughes, Celia. Stop the Violence, Break the Silence (a training
guide). Austin, Texas: Safe Place, 2003.
25. Helpful Websites
Baylor College of Medicine -
http://www.bcm.edu/crowd/index.cfm?pmid=1325
Washinton State Coalition Againt Domestic Violence –
http://www.wscadv.org/docs/protocol_disability_safety_planning.pdf
Accessing Safety –
http://www.accessingsafety.org/uploads/File/Kansas_City_Advocate_Guide
_Safety_Planning.pdf
Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence -
http://www.vaw.umn.edu/documents/safetyplandisability/safetyplandisabi
lity.pdf
Strengthen Our Sisters -
http://www.strengthenoursisters.org/safetyplansos2010.pdf
Emphasize:*Not all people with disabilities are the sameDang ass and SP needs to be individualized to the person and must take into account disability, gender, language and cultural needs
-separation assault-physical includes sexual assault and hitting, slapping etc –refer back to dis specific abusePsych = emotional, name calling, crazy making, encourage substance abuse,blaming them for their own disabilityChild = actual abuse, insulting parenting, threatening to take them or CPS take themFinancial – refer back to unemployment rate and lack of accessible housing, possible homelessness, refer back to rep payeeF & F – loss of support/possible physical threats to those that helpLoss of r – even more complicated if perpetrator is caregiver – example of person w/ID and this person drives them to the store/ physical and adl’s
Home location – accessible housing, access to public transportation, crime rates, Phy and mh – does she need help with adl’s?how will she pay for medical needs?Discrimination – to disclose or not to disclose?
1. Need for privacy, quiet, lessen distractions, lightingGIVE OUT P & Control wheels now
. 1. especially with Deaf/HOH
Use a calendar to help them see the patterns/severity of abuse
Use of code word or signal to neighbors and children
1. Especially people with ID/dd. Advocate role is to help them understand warning signs2. Important to tell them to listen to their feelings
prosthetics, bathing supplies or urological supplies can be used to abuseThere may be people who would want to help but who cannot provide an accessible, safe escape.Use tips for pg 22 of KC plan2. Important to tell them to listen to their feelings
Transportation – help them get signed up for access link or county transportation if not on it, advise them to schedule the ride to somewhere that is typical so they don’t arouse suspicion.
Share Safe Place Checklist
1 – PASP or medicaid home health2 - http://www.cpofnj.org/tlc technology loan center, voc rehab, blind/deaf divisions
Remind them that it does not guarantee safetyBasically same rules apply/ disability or notIf person is blind consider scanning it for them
Electronic copy may be easier for Deaf survivor and can be emailed to a new, confidential email or if blind may be able to be read into a tape recorder or mp3
Electronic copy may be easier for Deaf survivor and can be emailed to a new, confidential email or if blind may be able to be read into a tape recorder or mp3
Survivor knows her needs best – see the sp process as a collaboration
Other agencies – if you are VS agency, the pwd may have a relationship with disability service providers who could help make the plan
