Critical Case Review Committee

A Systems Approach to Reducing Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

The prevention of abuse neglect and exploitation is fundamental to overall health and wellbeing.1 Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience greater degrees of abuse, neglect, and exploitation than the wider population over longer periods of time and from a greater number of abusers, which has a detrimental effect on overall health and wellbeing.2, 3 The deinstitutionalization movement was precipitated by a number of small tributaries that resulted in the exposure of horrific examples of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and inhumane treatment that characterized the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities housed in large state and privately run residential “schools.”