Sue Sharples has used a Winston Churchill Memorial Fund grant to travel to the USA and Canada to help us all to learn their lessons around preventing abuse and promoting sexual health for people with learning disabilities.
Sue’s research had found that people with a learning disability in England are four times more likely to be sexually abused than other citizens.
It showed that the protection and safeguarding systems in the UK tend to look more at what happens after something bad has happened.
So Sue decided to go and speak to people in the USA and Canada, including self advocates, to find out what they are doing differently to help people keep themselves sexually safe in the first place.
Gary Bourlet, our Membership and Engagement lead interviewed Sue to find out more.
You can watch a short introduction to the interview here:
You can watch the full recording of Gary’s interview with Sue, which is 35 minutes long, here:
Sue has also written a report about her findings called Love Care:Fully Sexual Safety for Adults with a Learning Disability – Lessons from the USA and Canada
You can read the Easy Read Summary of the report here
Sue would love to hear from your group or organisation about how she can work with you to tell more people about the guide.
Please let us know if you would like us to put you in touch with Sue by emailing us at: info@LDEngland.org.uk