A great opportunity to ensure that people with disabilities affected by violence are taken seriously

In the first six months of 2024, Victim Support beider Basel opened over 1,500 new dossiers and cases and advised clients.
This corresponds to growth of a good 15 % compared to the previous year.
However, counseling for people with disabilities remains quite rare.
And so it is always something special for the advisors when they work with a sign language interpreter or explain in simplified language what forensic evidence preservation or constituting a private claimant means or how criminal proceedings work.
The legal aspects of victim support are very complex, so it is correspondingly challenging to convey them in a way that is easy to understand.

The exchange with other institutions and also reports show: Nobody really dares to tackle the issue of violence against disabled people, not only on the part of victim counseling centers.
Many wait until others take the first step and become active.

We at Opferhilfe beider Basel are now taking a step in this direction.
We know that many more will follow.
And if it really is a priority issue for the cantons – as is often emphasized – then they must commit to it and provide the necessary financial resources for personnel and measures.

Numerous adjustments are necessary in order to tailor the service to people with disabilities: the information material and the website need to be redesigned and formulated in plain language.
It is also necessary for advisors to visit people with disabilities and employees in institutions and offices, provide information and raise awareness of the topic.

In order to achieve this, Opferhilfe beider Basel is increasing its staff.
Ruth Bonhôte took up her position on August 1, 2024.
She is responsible for issues relating to violence against people with disabilities, in addition to her counseling work with children and young people.

Ruth, you are a trained social worker, have a Master’s degree in social work and managed the internal reporting office of an institution in the disability sector for several years.
What was your work about?
Ruth Bonhôte: The focus of my work as a prevention and reporting office was to strengthen employees in reflecting on how they deal with violence and boundary violations.
This included prevention work in the form of training courses.
However, I mainly advised employees and clients of the institution on their experiences and questions relating to violence and boundary violations.
This included topics such as closeness and distance, measures that restrict freedom and aftercare.
I also advised entire teams on how to deal with clients who exhibited self-harm or self-harming behavior.
In addition, my tasks included developing the conceptual basis for dealing with violence and boundary violations internally and raising awareness of these issues.

Were you also confronted with cases of sexualized violence?
The professional monitoring of suspected cases was also part of my work.
The management and I worked closely together to classify suspected cases and take the necessary steps to intervene.
In such cases, Opferhilfe beider Basel was always a great support to me as an external specialist unit.

How do you explain the fact that so few people with disabilities make use of the services offered by victim support centers?
Depending on the type and severity of their impairment, people with disabilities lack the knowledge of what their rights are, what healthy sexuality is and what violence means when sexual integrity is violated or power is abused.
By this I don’t just mean cognitive knowledge, but internalized awareness and the ability to act.
As a result, many people with disabilities do not recognize that they are experiencing violence and are entitled to help.
In a second step, it can be a major hurdle for people with disabilities to find suitable support services and seek advice independently.
I also think that awareness of violence against people with disabilities must continue to increase among the accompanying professionals, guardians and relatives so that they can reach victim support centers on behalf of people with disabilities.

How can you contribute your experience in working with people with disabilities at Opferhilfe beider Basel?
What are your specific tasks?
One of the riches I bring with me is my extensive network in the disability sector in Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft.
I know both the outpatient and inpatient disability support services well and can see the different perspectives, especially with regard to the issues of violence and boundary violations.
This enables me to coach my colleagues from all specialist areas within the victim support center when they are advising people with disabilities and their support systems.
With my understanding of the different contexts of disability support and my experience in communicating with people with disabilities, I want to support them in offering good and safe advice.
I am also the contact person at Opferhilfe beider Basel for employees from the disability sector for victim-related questions and problems that arise in their day-to-day work.

What opportunities do you see?
By working together with my colleagues at Opferhilfe beider Basel, I recognize the great opportunity that our team can offer people with disabilities who have experienced violence the experience of being taken seriously and understood and of experiencing a better quality of life.
We can use communication aids to provide the people affected with basic advice on their rights, support options and their needs in relation to dealing with the experience of violence.
We can also provide translation assistance within the support system for the people with disabilities we advise.
If we can ensure that people with disabilities feel heard and understood at the central points in the support process, then this process can become manageable for them.

What about cooperation with other organizations?
At a higher level, I see an opportunity for victim support in beider Basel to work together with its partners in the network to define common approaches so that people with disabilities can exercise their right to help in dealing with the violence they have experienced.
Necla Parlak, Managing Director of insieme Basel, has already mentioned concrete ideas for such cooperation in the exchange: an active role for victim support in the prevention concepts of institutions, joint further training for employees and clients, in cooperation with peers.
Or visits to residential groups by the victim support team from beider Basel.
I don’t think we’re all short of ideas.
If we in the network manage to implement our many ideas in partnership, a lot of really positive things can come out of it for people with disabilities affected by violence.
On behalf of Opferhilfe beider Basel, I say that we are ready to take these steps.