Sexual Health

A Norwegian report from ‘Save the Children’ states that: “nobody knows better how it feels to be subject to abuse than the person who has experienced it. Nobody knows better how it feels not to be seen, heard or believed or what is necessary in order to be able to tell someone about these experiences” (8). 

Rape sometimes happens among youths that lack an understanding of what constitutes sexual abuse and rape (4, 8-11). In these cases, several young girls take the blame, as well as explaining what happened (8). People talk about the physical situation too often. An incestuous relationship is not dependent on physical touch but can indeed be independent of physical touch (1). 

Sometimes the victim does not realise that he or she is subjected to sexual abuse. International studies show that the majority of Harmful Sexual Behavior (HSB) is done by boys (90-95%) at an average age of 14. When they commit their first HSB, most of these boys live together with their parents. Youngsters who commit HSB are often siblings, related to or know the victim well. The victim is often a younger girl (4, 9, 10, 12). 

PWID may also commit abuse towards others with ID and towards younger or older siblings (10). Young offenders are often boys in their puberty, and they mostly know their victims who are often family member (9). Figures from a larger descriptive study from Great Britain show that 25% of young people with HSB (Harmful Sexual Behavior) has an IQ under 70. About 45% of these young people have specific learning disabilities and a larger number has psychological health issues and family issues (13).

For instance, if you have a son going through puberty, he should not shower or sleep with a younger sister or brother alone. There have been unfortunate situations and abuse because the PWID did not understand what is right and wrong in the situation (14).

Knowledge of social norms and sexuality may prevent abuse since deeper knowledge makes us competent to recognise abuse, identify people at risk of being abused and an abusive case. Knowledge of your own rights and limits can prepare a person for recognising abusive situations. Knowledge may contribute people learning more and being more open about how their private space has been violated. Parents and health professionals need to be able to talk and teach about subjects of violation and abuse, and do this in a way that is easy to understand for PWID. If we talk about positive sexuality first, it might be easier to venture on to the negative aspects of the sexuality. Recall advice from Chapter Two and Five in this module.

ACTIVITIES:

• Find statistics of sexual abuse in your country. Do these statistics differentiate between people with and without ID?
• Discuss with your child/sibling/client about the occurrence of sexual abuse and what you and he/she can do to prevent themselves as well as other persons that are exposed to sexual abuse. 
• Discuss with other parents/siblings/service providers/teachers about sexual abuse in your country. Talk about how you can cooperate to prevent it happen.