A new report highlights the experiences of children with disabilities who are victims of family violence. Children with disabilities are often misunderstood by responders and overlooked by service providers.
These images give voice to some of the survivors of family and domestic violence we rarely hear from: children with disability. In one, a young boy, Patrick, draws an image of a rat in one of the four hotels where his family fled to escape violence. In another, his sister Olivia, a neurodiverse tween, sketches an image of a girl being mean to her at school while they move between crisis accommodation.
In a third a young boy, Isaac, portrays himself with a cat and kittens as he tries to cope with missing a father who was also violent. These drawings were included in some of the only research to ever look at the experiences of children with disability and family violence, ANROWS's landmark 2022 Connecting the Dots report. People who've lived, researched or interacted with the system told ABC NEWS children with disability were all-too-frequently misunderstood by responders, slipped through the cracks of multiple service providers, and were at times used as weapons.After 13 years in a coercive controlling relationship, it was the impact the abuse had on her son that gave Tee* the courage to leave.For years their life had been marked by his father's controlling behaviours, accusing Tee of having affairs, limiting their outside contact and having aggressive outbursts when he didn't get his way.'There were times when he stopped me from getting services for my son and from going to the hospital.' Tee said specific situations would be triggering for Sam. Hearing people shouting still induces physical reactions today. Tee (not pictured here) says systems designed to help people fleeing violence have very little understanding of kids with disability.Leaving became more complicated when Tee realised the systems designed to help people fleeing abuse had very little understanding of how to assist a child with disability. For example, police officers didn't understand that asking the pair to pack up and leave their house in 20 minutes wasn't as simple for someone like Sa
FAMILY VIOLENCE DISABILITIES CHILDREN SUPPORT SYSTEMS OVERLOOKED
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