Abuse_Towards_a_Person_with_a_Disability_in_Our_Society

The overview of this article, this is a story that has caught the entire community and world in a state of shocked and disbelieved, it is about a 23 years old young lady who I will refer to as “Jane Doe” she is mentally disabled and suffers from a rare disorder calls “Fatal Dilantin Syndrome”. This disorder has left her impaired of her cognation with a mental capacity of a 12 years old child. In the early summer of 2006 Jane moved into the home of a Winnipeg family friend where she was abused. Base on my finding after reading the article, I learnt that Jane has suffered extensive physical, emotional, mental, and verbal, seclusion, mistreatment, neglect, and psychological abuse at the hands of these four Winnipeg family friends. The abuse continued four month until she was rescued by Winnipeg police after her family member began to worried about not seeing or hearing from her. As stated in the web site steady health.com “Fetal Dilantin syndrome also referred to as Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome is a rare disorder caused by exposure of a fetus to the anticonvulsant drug phenitoin (Dilantin)” It also stated, “symptoms of this disorder may include abnormalities of the skull and facial features, growth deficiencies, underdeveloped nails of the fingers and toes, and or mild developmental delays”. I will focus my attention on few types of the abuse that Jane had endured during the months while she was living with this family. Firstly, I will talk about physical abuse, according to mamashealth.com “Physical abuse consists of anything one person does to another that causes physical pain, which includes slapping, pinching, punching, pushing, throwing objects at another person. Physical abuse can result in bruises, black eyes, knocked out teeth, broken bones, internal organ injuries, brain concussions, and even death”. In this case, I realized Jane has endured extensive physical abuse where she was subjected to beatings, repeatedly pushed down a flight stairs, punched, starved of food to the point of emaciation, repeatedly burned with lighters, burned with lit tissue paper, burned with barbecue forks that were heated until red hot on a stove element, then pressed into the victim's skin until there was a sizzling sound it was taken off, whipped with wet towels, burned with lit cigarettes, receiving unwanted physical contact, restrained, she was missing large clumps of hair, had two black eyes, cuts and bruises all over her face and body, she had pale and grey skin according to the article. Secondly, psychological abuse is a type of abuse that involves subjecting people to pain and distress of an emotional, rather than physical. In cases of extreme abuse, the stress created by the abuser can actually lead to the manifestation of physical symptoms of abuse ranging from loss of appetite to self-harming behaviour. “Identifying and addressing this form of abuse can be challenging, because it can manifest itself into various forms as well as it is very dependent on the nature of the individuals involved” as stated in the article on the web site www.wisegeek.com. I also realized that the individuals who psychologically abused Jane have caused her mental anguish. She was humiliated and was isolated from her family and friends which deprived her of social or emotional support. The significant weight loss she had; of nearly 100 pounds, help contributed to her being depressed, confused, emotionally upset, agitated, withdrawn, non responsive, scared, frightened and traumatized so much that she had to be hospitalized before she could talk to the police. Thirdly, according to the article on the web site www.thereislifeafterabuse.com, “Verbal/emotional abuse is anything that the abuser says or does to the victim, who causes the victim to be afraid, lowers the victim's self esteem, or manipulates the victim's emotions in order to control the victim's behaviour”. Emotional abuse usually occurs when one person wants power and control over another person. The abuser controls their victims in these ways that cause their victims to feel lonely and isolated. This is done by controlling what the victim does, what people they see and talk to, and where they go, they cause their victims to have negative feelings about themselves or to feel degraded. This is done through insults, name-calling, making false accusations, and playing games with the victims' minds. I realized Jane was abused verbally /emotionally by her abusers by them calling her names, put her down, insulting her, isolating from friends and family, telling her what to do, making her feeling responsible for causing the violence, yelling and screaming, criticizing, threatening with violence and harm and, intentionally embarrassing her in front of people and also by using intimidation, Jane was been dehumanized and devalued by these abuser according to the article. As stated, in the text book Home Safe written by Dave Hingsburger, “Abuse occurs when a staff misuses their authority or position of trust by acting in a manner that causes harm or has the potential to cause harm to the individual”. I realize some of the contributing factors that are relevant to Jane’s abuse was that she has been accused of sexually interfering with a child of the perpetrators. She was physically punished and was isolated, because they accused her of molested their young son. They were also upset after the victim told O’Malley’s parents that O’Malley was pregnant. The woman’s parents eventually forced her to have an abortion and Hendrickson and O’Malley said they blamed the victim for letting out the secret. Although, Jane was being neglected, it appears they were tired of her being in their house and not contributing anything and they were overwhelmed by the demands of taking care of her. Consequently, there are different step in which a Developmental Service Worker should take, when dealing with any types of abuse. These steps should be taken appropriately especially, in dealing with someone who has a developmental disability. These are some of the steps I would take if I was initially involved in reporting the abuse and the indicators at the time, which would support a high or low risk situation. The first step I would take in this case would be to remove Jane from the abusive environment, next I would reassure her that what she is about to say would be confidential and I will document them in her own words. I would also let her know that I will assist her in making decisions that is within her best interest. I would also then enquire about her thoughts and feelings regarding the situation. I will then assess the situation and report it to the appropriate personnel, so that the proper procedure could be followed. However, the approach I would take to the abused and the abuser, including specific community resources and interventions. For example, Jane would need the assistance of a social worker, because of her financial status, and also for her to move immediately to a safe place. Furthermore, I believe because Jane was so traumatized by her ordeal she would need extensive counselling, I will recommend for her to see a therapist to discuss what happened to her. This kind of service is very important because, it will help her to overcome and better deal with the abuse she had encountered. Also, she will need to be intergraded back into the community, have her join social club where she can get to interact with different people and make new friends, she would definitely need to be placed into a loving and caring environment where the caregiver would be knowledgeable about her disability and provided with love, respect, affection, and basically to treat her with dignity and as a human being. On the other hand, for the abusers I will recommend for them also to see a therapist to get some kind of counselling, to find out what has transpired them to commit this awful crime against another human being, to join groups so that they can be educated about how to treat individuals with developmental disabilities and also, what kind of help, if any, they will need to help them deal with the punishments and ridicules they faced by the community or with the legal system. In regards to the abuser, the justice system would be notified whether through me or upper management, where justice would be served for the dreadful crime these people has committed against Jane, again, for the abuser, I do believe they should go to jail and do their time however, I firmly believe that Dale, April, Thelma and Amanda should be educated properly about how to treat individual with disability so they don’t commit this type of crime against anyone else. I also believe as a part of their punishment, they should do community service maybe, in school or public places telling children about the awful things they have done to Jane and also, they will get the opportunity to educate people on how they should treat individuals who has a disability, so that whenever they see someone who has a disability they will know exactly what to say or do to that person. I believe the barriers preventing further action as relevant to the case could stem from varieties of different reason; one base on the fact that there is limited information that is mentioned about her background, for example, what happen to her father, siblings extended family and other relatives after her mother pasted away' And two, what is the reason for a non family member taking care of her and also, why is she not living with a family member that is within close proximity of her family' Another reason could be, because of her disability, and the way in which society look upon individual that has a disability. These perpetrators thought they could get away with this horrendous crime they have committed against Jane, but, thanks to her family who had concerns of her wellbeing she was able to be rescued from these horrible cruelties of these individuals. In conclusion, there are various ways in which an individual with developmental disability can be abused. However, based on the lecture in class, an individual with a disability is more likely to be abused by a person who is close to them and is in close proximity to where they live and in and around their surrounding. I also learned that 100 % of individuals with intellectual disabilities will be abused in their life. As we can see in this case, Jane was abused by the people who were close to her, and also the people that she trusted the most. Often times, one will abuse a person to gain control and power. In my opinion, individuals with developmental disability suffer these types of abuse, because they can’t defend or take care of themselves, and also because of the negative way society looks upon them. As a Developmental Service Worker, I strongly believe society should be educated to look at the individual themselves and not at the disability the person posses. In other words, people with developmental disability should be treated with respect, love, affection and dignity. In addition, no one should have the right to abuse and or harm another human being.