Abusive partners 'weaponising' disability - research

Urgent action is required to ensure the safety, welfare and protection of disabled women experiencing intimate partner abuse, according to research published by Women's Aid.

The study which was conducted in partnership between Trinity College Dublin, the Disabled Gender Based Violence Taskforce and Women’s Aid sought to achieve "a deeper understanding" of this type of abuse against disabled women in Ireland.

97 surveys were completed as part of the research, and interviews were conducted with disabled women who had experienced intimate partner abuse.

The research found that abusive partners, often in the position of a carer, "weaponise women’s disabilities".

A "strongly emerging theme", according to the authors, was the barriers disabled women experienced when wishing to leave an abusive relationship.

"These barriers ranged from depending on an abusive partner for mobility support, withholding of medication by their abuser to having no support to access domestic violence services," it said.

Many of the participants who had children at the time of the abuse were concerned for the children’s safety and feared losing custody.

Women also expressed concern that key professionals such as medical professionals and An Garda Síochána may not be equipped to help them, or in some cases would not believe them.

The report states that provision of funding and training for awareness-raising, accessibility improvements and capacity building is needed to assist domestic violence services.

At the moment, specialist domestic violence organisations and disability services are not adequately resourced and trained to be properly accessible and are often not seen as relevant or useful to disabled victims of intimate partner abuse, according to the report.

It recommends more to improve the accessibility of courts and domestic violence services, provision of training to legal professionals, domestic violence support staff and disability support organisations.

It says this would enable all to understand both the dynamics and impacts of coercive control and specific needs of disabled women suffering intimate partner abuse.

'Groundbreaking' research - Women's Aid

The report states that "urgent action" is needed to ensure the safety, welfare and protection of disabled women experiencing intimate partner abuse including prioritisation of the issue in the Government’s third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

The survey conducted as part of the research found that disability had a strong impact on the experience of abuse and the ability to get help.

96% of women believed that their disability made it harder to cope with intimate partner abuse while 60% of women experienced disability specific abuse including the lack of support to do everyday activities.

Difficulties cited include basic mobility support to use the toilet, get dressed or leave the house, and name calling about disability.

Overall, 68% of disabled women perceived professionals were less likely to believe their disclosures of intimate partner abuse because they were disabled.

Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid has described the research as "groundbreaking", because it lifts the lid on "a very hidden part of the experience of intimate partner abuse against women in Ireland."

She said: "We heard experiences of being physically hurt and sexually abused as well as economic and emotional abuse, comparable with what non-disabled women experience.

"However, disabled women experiencing intimate partner abuse seem to suffer higher rates of physical, economic and sexual violence than abused non-disabled women."

'Extremely serious' findings

Dr Susan Flynn from Trinity College Dublin and principal investigator on the research project, described the findings as "extremely serious".

She said: "Impacts often were related in some way to disability such as women being unable to leave an abuser, or an unsafe place, due to not having help to move their bodies.

"Disabled women had types of abuse related to disability, that made the types of abuse they suffered that weren’t to do with disability even more acute."

Gladys O’Neill, who was a member of the research team and is a member of the Disabled Gender-Based Violence Taskforce, said the research had given a voice to so many women who have been silent until now.

She said: "We owe it to the women who had the courage to share their experiences to listen to their stories, to the things that made it feel so hard or impossible for them to safely escape abuse.

"We must acknowledge that this is happening all over the country and pay attention to the recommendations in this report which we need to implement immediately."

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said multi-annual funding for organisations supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence will be available once CUAN (the new statutory domestic, sexual and gender based violence agency) is established.

However, speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she could not say when this funding will be available.

The minister said it was positive that more people are coming forward to seek support from agencies because "for too long" people did not seek help but stayed silent.