Being a victim of abuse.
Stephanie raises the issue of the network not having anything regarding abuse or self-esteem issues in her latest blogpost at http://stephanielynnkeil.blogspot.com/2010/01/autisms-women-network-constructive.html.
These are obviously areas of importance and I've encouraged her to come here and post on the topics.
I'm glad that this has been brought up! I've actually been Brain storming a project where I would like to see a directory of ASD friendly safe houses/shelters. Too often these places are not trained to deal with the issues of women on spectrum, making the whole issue of getting out of an abusive relationship that much harder.
Do you guys think that this is a worthwhile goal? I have a friend in the larger disability community who has brought up that this needs gone for the entire disability community, too, but we would only be taking on the ASD part. Thoughts?
I know a lot of women on spectrum that have been victims of abuse. I have, both as a child and in adult relationships. I think, though, that because of the media focus on children's issues (which is a huge messy issue in and of itself) people don't think of it as often- that it makes society uncomfortable to think about the issues faced by adults on spectrum.
What other initiatives do you guys want to see on this topic?
Savannah Nicole Logsdon-Breakstone Director of Advocacy 
I definitely think it is a worthwhile goal.
I also think that articles need to be written specific to women with ASDs about abuse in all of its forms, especially sexual. Women and children with ASDs usually can't spot the "grooming" techniques used which is why they are so vulnerable.
Some sort of educational program or something of the sort needs to be set up to educate females with ASDs about this. As of yet, I have not seen such a thing.
I think that's some good points! so thus far we have desire to see:
- Directory of ASD accessible shelters
- Push for studies on the effect of abuse on ASDs and subsequent pulication
- Articles on abuse and women on spectrum
- a program (or promoting the development of a program) to help teach women and girls on Spectrum about abuse and spotting grooming techs. (This has been brought up previously with the guest who we were supposed to have on our radio show, but had technical issues making us cancel the show.)
Savannah Nicole Logsdon-Breakstone Director of Advocacy
For now that sounds good! 
Savannah, you've been busy over here girl! Thank you for fielding the abuse & DV Hot Topics.
As you know, I've spent the past several days working with AWN Missouri Director, Tricia Kenney on an abuse & DV case involving a mother & daughter on the spectrum. I am hoping that I will be able to let everyone know fairly soon how AWN will be following through on our end to help the family.
I wanted to offer a suggestion if I may. When I read Stephanie's blog yesterday: Autism Women's Network: Constructive Criticism, it dawned on me that perhaps we might encourage people as they join the site to take a few minutes and click on the Directory tab at the top of the page to read the bios of our AWN Directors & Board Members.
This might at least help those who may not know some of us personally to at least get a brief overview of who we are & what many of us are passionate about & our community envolvements devoted to many of the causes addressed on this board. Please remember that AWN is a new organization, and we have to start somewhere.
I made a decision to not post our Forum Boards for Abuse & DV until I have volunteers to be at the site 24/7 to field any emergency that may arise. Due to my own personal experience with DV, I am extremely sensitive of the need to offer our AWN community quality networking for these issues. The vulnerability of women on the spectrum as it relates to rape, abuse, DV, and so much more is far greater than what most people realize.
For a complete understanding as to where AWN stands regarding all of this, please hop over to Stephanie's blog - I posted a comment about these concerns yesterday. Thanks everyone!
There's also The security issues when involving a place for survivors- I suggest checking out The rules on the _survivors_ community on LJ for some examples, as well as the resource guide the mods there maintain.
I think that once we get our "notes" feature completed (which I do not know the timeline on yet) we will be wanting people to be able to set their own security groups. Some things are only safe to post about in that level of security because of either the nature of a particular situation, or because of worries of retaliation. Other people, a throughly moderated forum section a la our Sanctuary section will work.
If anyone would like to know anything more about my experiences as a survivor than they can glean from either my directory Bio or my blogs, ask me. I might have some things I am only comfortable talking about in a PM, but for the most part I am very open about my past as it relates to my Abuse. There are somethings that I am only realizing the (sometimes sickening) implications of today. It took me until I was 18 to realize that one situation had been exploitative when I was very young. (The details of this one I can PM about but I'm not ready to go public about yet.) On the other hand, other situations I realized were explicitly abusive but had not been able to recognize the extent of the damage until very recently. I am willing to, and do, publicly discuss that situation.
That said, If you would like to discuss your personal experiences of abuse, please See our Sanctuary area, and please start your Thread with a warning in the title that it could be triggering.
This particular thread is more about the issue of abuse rather than individual cases.
Savannah Nicole Logsdon-Breakstone Director of Advocacy
I know that personally, I would love it if the list of ASD accessible shelters included areas all around the world. The reason why I accepted refudge at my very over-crowded friend's house was that I wasn't sure whether any of the shelters in my city would be supportive of an autistic's needs. If I had gone there, I'll be in a place where support services to get what I need to support myself would be more available.
There is some murmurs about Acessibility maps in the larger disability community so that people can know if a shelter has the services and training to accommodated people with various needs- for example, someone with a CPAP machine might need different spacing requirements, ASD folks have different needs, and those with a chronic health condition have different needs.
We need to know where we can send different people who have different needs for help, and for safety.
I know ASAN-NE were working on a project to make a shelter that is SPECIFICALLY for those with ASDs. I personally am hoping that once it is up and running, they will be able to release their working model so that we can establish one in all the major metropolitan areas and then some at least in the US. If I hear more on this, I'll start a new thread on it (If you are from ASAN-NE and want to start a thread on "ASAN-NE's SHelter project" or something of that nature, PLEASE do!).
In the mean time, I think that we have enough discussion on shelters and shelter issues to start a new thread.
Savannah Nicole Logsdon-Breakstone Director of Advocacy
Unfortunately this thread seems to have been inactive for a while. However, I am hoping some of you are still following.I was going to post anyway and was looking for where to do it and then I found this part and was so excited to see that other people had thought of these things too!! So, my original post to explain:
I am training to be a volunteer in the ER with survivors of various types of assault and abuse. Part of our training we had a speaker come and talk about physical disability and how that special population was especially vulnerable and in what ways we should be sensitive to their needs while in the ER.
I realized that this type of thing doesn't really exist for non-physical disabilities or things like ASDs. I offered to do a presentation on PDDs as a special population for the benefit of the social workers and other volunteers. I however would like to get some input from actual women about it to help make it more complete.
I would like to speak (via email if possible) to people about some of these issues. Regardless of if you have experienced any of these things, your input would still be incredibly valuable.
Feel free to respond to this, email me at aspiefeminist@gmail.com or visit my new blog www.aspiefeminist.wordpress.com to see some of the questions I am considering and help me brainstorm.
There is another facet of abuse that seems to be missing here. History of child abuse. It is one of the single biggest obsticals in obtaining help, and being successful.
When I was a child it was clear my parents were abusive and I was struggling. I myself and teachers, neighbors, etc. all repeatedly called Child Services. They were told I was mentally ill and lying, and they refused to remove me, and even threatened to arresst me if my parents were falsly reported again.
I have no family to fall back on if I am struggling, to help advocate for me, or any number of other roles a family usually plays in the life of a 19 year old not fully capable of caring for herself (yet. Working on that one)
When I left home, the shelter my friend's mother contacted to help me was unable to do anything if I refused to stay there. I went for a trial period for 2 hours. I was thrown out within one for having first a panic attack and then a sensory overload meltdown. Since then I have struggled to get any help whatsoever from any agency that is suppossed to be able to help me. Without access to my records from before I was 18, I'm unable to prove my diagnosis and qualify for any accommodations or aid, and without accommodations/aid, I can not get a job/afford to see a doctor who could say I need accommodations/aid.
People also have a tendency to express concern that any problems I have must be because I was abused, and that if pushed beyond my comfort zone while being given the right amount of support all my problems would be "cured". This is particularly prevelant in my church, where the idea seems to be that I'm suffering from immaturity and "innapropriate behavior for my age" and if I'd just "learn to be ok" I'd be fine.
I don't know what might be done to remedy the situation, but I've noticed the world of being under-21 and in need of help is nearly impossible to navigate without parents. Some places won't even accept an application for aid without the parents' contact info, and some places refuse to help with anything other than a bus ticket to your parents if you are under 21. I feel this is something that needs to be known about, less people in my situation who aren't quite as lucky and don't have friends as good as mine fall through the cracks and end up homeless or further abused.
Excellent ponts, lokilost! I've noticed the same concerns regarding parental permissions when assisting my 18 year old disabled son.
I am an adult woman with high-functioning autism and have survived abuse (sexual, emotional and physical). It is a very important issue.
I'm wanting to get an MSW (Master of Social Work) and work professionally to change policies for persons with disabilities who experience sexual and domestic violence.
I've also been through abuse and neglect, in childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. My most recent abuse was 2007 through 2009, from house mates (the family owning the house where I live). I've also done volunteer work for a local domestic violence support group (I no longer do this). This isn't specific to women on the spectrum, but I found that there is little support for anyone if the abuse isn't physically menacing, and not involving actual physical assault. In my case, the 07-09 abuse wasn't physical except in the sense that the family would force me to leave the house for several days at a time to accommodate their overnight guests in the room I occupy. I had no say in the matter, and nowhere else to go, so I had no options except to return to their house, knowing that they were going to keep doing this to me. I contacted the DV center where I once volunteered, and I also contacted my state representative. They all told me the same thing--there was no long-term (or even short-term, emergency) housing for me, and there was nothing I could do if I couldn't afford to move out.
I guess sharing this doesn't contribute much to the issue at hand, but I can attest to the psychic scars abuse leaves, and in a way, I think this mental abuse is worse because there are no physical injuries I can point to that are proof of the abuse. Most of the people who know about this don't think it was much of a big deal. I don't know if the DV center or my representative could have offered anything more if I'd known at the time about my Asperger's (I was diagnosed in early 2010, and I started to suspect strongly that I had Asperger's as a direct result of this abuse). A resource specializing in support for women Aspies who have been abused would be an invaluable resource anywhere, but since there are so few of we women Aspies, would there be much support for establishing a support center like this?
Thank you, Kim!
Yes, I feel that these are important issues that are often overlooked, especially abuse. I have not seen anything from the self-advocacy community about abuse yet, except the recent coverage of restraints and seculsion of people with autism and other related disorders inside of the classroom.
While I feel these areas are obviously important there are also other areas of equal importance that still have to be addressed because abuse happens outside of the classroom as well. Women with cognitive disabilities have the highest rate of abuse, especially sexual abuse:
(emphasis mine)
I feel that any "women's" network should cover topics regarding abuse in all of its forms, especially an Autism Women's Network since females with autism are some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
Sadly, there isn't much information to be found in the the field of women with cognitive disabilites and abuse. Research of disabled people and abuse usually seems more confined to people with physical disabilites, whose rates of sexual abuse are the same as the non-physically disabled population, unlike those with cognitive disabilites, where the rate of sexual abuse (and, I suspect, all other kinds of abuse) is four to ten times higher than the non-cognitively disabled population.
You can find a few more articles about women and abuse here: http://new.vawnet.org/category/index_pages.php?category_id=496#523
"Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror" - Rilke
http://www.stephanielynnkeil.blogspot.com