Community-Based Services and Interventions for Adults With Disabilities Who Have Experienced Interpersonal Violence: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This study provides a review of the peer-reviewed literature from 1995 to 2010 on violence-related service, prevention, and intervention programs for people with disabilities. A comprehensive literature search resulted in a total of 16 articles, 6 related to service programs and 10 related to intervention and prevention programs. The services articles revealed a noticeable disconnect between the violence services programs’ perceived accessibility and the perception of their accessibility in the disability community. Most of the intervention and prevention articles focused exclusively on abuse prevention for adults with intellectual disabilities and generally had small samples and lacked controlled conditions. Very few methods of abuse treatment for people with disabilities have been empirically evaluated. Efforts should be made to improve accessibility and increase cross-collaboration between domestic violence services and disability service organizations, and there is a need for accessible, culturally sensitive, and rigorously tested abuse interventions and prevention programs for women and men with diverse disabilities.