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"Working with Victims with Disabilities

Recommendations for National, State, and Local Disability Rights Specialists
One of the sections of the greater document: "Working with Victims with Disabilities, an OVC Bulletin", by Cheryl Guidry Tyiska, NOVA

While many of the recommendations listed above for victim assistance and allied professionals in the justice system also apply to disability rights specialists, the following are suggestions that are specific to disability rights communities. Furthermore, NOVA and OVC staff can make suggestions on how to locate the necessary information to get started with these recommendations.

1. Disability rights and services specialists should learn about State and local victim rights legislation. They should learn how victim assistance programs (both system-based and private agencies) are set up and how services and resources, including crime victim compensation, are accessed. In addition, this information should be shared with crime victims with disabilities and their families.

2. People with disabilities, especially young people, should be educated about the nature of criminal victimization, to whom they should report crimes against them, and how to access help.

3. Personal safety training should be provided for people with disabilities. People with substantial disabilities should work with a knowledgeable specialist to develop personal safety plans.

4. Independent living center staff, benefits rights specialists, protection and advocacy program staff, and legal rights specialists should be trained on how to access State crime victim compensation programs to benefit their clients.

5. National disability rights organizations should establish a national scope criminal justice committee. This committee would establish a national agenda that calls for disability rights organizations and criminal justice authorities to systematically address the issue of crime against all groups of people with disabilities.

6. Disability rights advocates need to work with appropriate allies to establish a personal assistant "bank" for emergencies (to provide backup assist-ants and financial resources to pay for them).

7. Disability rights advocates should advocate for State laws requiring criminal background checks on prospective personal assistants and other direct service providers before they are hired to care for individuals with disabilities. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, in conjunction with the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, recently published Guidelines for the Screening of Persons Working with Children, the Elderly, and Individuals with Disabilities in Need of Support (NCJ# 167248). While these guidelines do not mandate criminal record checks for all care providers, they do provide advice on establishing policies to ensure an appropriate level of screening based on specific situations. To obtain a copy of this publication, call or write the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse/NCJRS, P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, Maryland 20849-6000, telephone number 800-638-8736, fax number 301-519-5212. This document may also be viewed online or downloaded from the OJJDP Home Page: www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

8. Personnel of programs that pro-vide services to people with disabilities should be encouraged and trained to ask about a client's victimization history as part of the routine intake/assessment process. The disclosure should be entirely voluntary and should be confidential. If a client discloses that he or she has been a crime victim in the past or is currently being victimized, the service provider should inform the client that there may be victim rights laws that offer protection and offer to refer the client to an appropriate victim assistance agency.

Recommendations for the Office for Victims of Crime

1. OVC should lead the victim assistance field in ensuring that crime victims with disabilities are afforded basic rights and access to needed services. OVC should encourage a strong State response to Section IV.A.4 of the Final Program Guidelines for the VOCA Victim Assistance Grant Program. This Section encourages States to identify gaps in available services, not just by the types of crimes committed but also by victims' demographic characteristics, including disability status.

2. OVC should work cooperatively with State Crime Victim Assistance and Compensation Programs to ensure that regional training for VOCA sub-recipients on the requirements of the ADA is available. OVC could then develop an annual accessibility "check-list" for State VOCA administrators, who in turn could provide guidance to VOCA sub-recipients about complying with the ADA.

3. OVC should promote the use of available resources and foster the identification and development of other re-sources to help ensure that the victim assistance field in particular those programs funded by VOCA-is educated about issues and concerns relevant to crime victims with disabilities and trained to provide services efficiently, effectively, and with compassion.

• States receiving VOCA funds have the option of using up to 6 percent of the State's victim assistance grant for the purpose of conducting statewide and/or regional trainings of victim services staff. States should be encouraged to use this option to provide needed training to practitioners on the best practices in serving crime victims with disabilities.

• OVC should propose and encourage the formation of a Working Group composed of State VOCA Administrators and service providers to help determine the most effective ways to utilize available resources.

5. OVC should direct VOCA discretionary grant funding to develop training and technical assistance projects that include a strong focus on serving crime victims with disabilities. Special attention should be addressed to crime victims with disabilities from minority and low-income groups, who are least likely of all crime victims to receive victim assistance services. OVC is currently funding several multiyear demonstration projects, Victim Services 2000, which are designed to serve as models for communities in rural and urban settings that wish to develop networks of integrated and comprehensive services for crime victims. OVC should ensure that the needs and issues of crime victims with disabilities are addressed comprehensively in these demonstration projects.

6. OVC should work closely with State victim compensation administrators to identify issues and service gaps related to the long-term medical and mental health needs of crime victims with disabilities when developing crime victim compensation guidelines. For example, a long-term medical expense for one Symposium participant who became blind after being shot, is to be refitted for and to replace her prosthetic eyes every few years; an expense of about $1,700.

7. OVC should encourage presentations on themes relevant to increasing accessibility of services for crime victims with disabilities at all State, regional, or national conferences, conventions, symposia, focus groups or meetings funded by OVC. In particular, training for VOCA administrators attending the annual VOCA conference should promote the importance of serving this population of crime victims. The training should present the most efficient ways to use State VOCA funds to increase physical access through facility modifications or acquiring specialized communication equipment. OVC should also study how much VOCA funding is currently being spent annually to increase access of services to crime victims with disabilities, and how much additional VOCA funding will be needed to ensure full accessibility.

8. OVC should establish dynamic partnerships with disability communities at the national level (paralleling local efforts) to encourage policy and program development that will benefit crime victims with disabilities.

9. OVC should develop a mechanism for using and disseminating the information on disability status that is currently collected by VOCA sub recipients. Such statistics could be used to develop "benchmarking" standards.

The Federal Performance Report Working Group should be composed of representatives from (1) the Office for Victims of Crime and the Violence Against Women Grants Office of the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice and (2) The Center for Disease Control and Ad-ministration on Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Working Group will develop a standardized Statistical Summary Sub grant Award Report that could be used by all organizations receiving Federal funding to assist victims of crime from any of these Federal funding sources. OVC should formally recommend that this standardized report include disability status and the nature of the disability as part of the demographic data that is collected.

10. The National Victim Assistance Academy, funded by OVC, should build on the current training component on working with crime victims with disabilities.

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