Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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3.0 Capacity to consent to sexual relationships
3.1 Introduction
Historically in Ireland, the UK, Australia, America and other Western
countries people with intellectual disabilities and mental health
problems were considered ‘unfit’ to reproduce and become parents,
with implications such as sexual relationships being discouraged for
people residing in institutions (Barker, 1983; Fennell, 1996; Trent, 1994).
This attitude began to change in the 1970s through the discussion of
disability rights (Shakespeare, 2000, Rioux, 1997) and the introduction of
the concept of normalisation (Emerson, 1992; Wolfensberger, 1980 cited
in BPS, 2006:105), which led to a growing empowerment of people with
learning disabilities and a widening acceptance of their rights in relation
to recognition of their sexual needs. As a result, sex education materials
began to be written that addressed issues specific to people with
intellectual disability (McCarthy and Thompson, 1998; Cambridge, 1997).
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
Meanwhile, research has demonstrated the high incidence of sexual
abuse or exploitation of people with intellectual disabilities and their
vulnerability to such abuse because of their social and/or cognitive
differences (McCarthy, 1999; Sobsey, 1994). Brown (2004) asserts
that women with learning disabilities face double oppression at the
intersection of gender and disability, and this renders them particularly
vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation. Vulnerability, Brown
(2004) contends, is usefully viewed in the context of a social model of
vulnerability. This model locates the extra risks to women with learning
disability, not in their impairments per se, but in the extent to which they
are placed in situations which expose them to risks that other women
would not be exposed to, and in discriminatory responses experienced by
women from agencies.
Assessment of capacity to enter sexual relationships has received
increased attention in recent years (Murphy and Clare, 2003; Lyden, 2007;
Kennedy and Niederbuhl, 2001) due to the increasing recognition of the
rights of people with disabilities. There is general agreement that people
should be enabled and encouraged to take decisions for themselves
when possible. There has been increasing concern and recognition of the
need to both empower people with intellectual disability to make their