“The hurdle to reporting suspected cases can be high”

Office for Assistance and Adult Protection Basel-Stadt

Andrea Schmid has been working as a legal assistant at the Department for Protection against Violence and Victim Support of the Canton of Basel-Stadt since June 1, 2024. She has a degree in law and is a primary school teacher. Previously, she worked at the Basel-Stadt Office for Guardianship and Adult Protection for the last few years.

How did your work at the Office for Guardianship and Adult Protection relate to people with disabilities?
Andrea Schmid: As a professional guardian and lawyer, I have supported and represented clients with mental, physical and cognitive impairments, among other things. My support related to practical aspects of life, such as finding a suitable housing solution or maintaining contact with relatives. Part of my role was also to provide legal representation. This included lodging appeals to have decisions made by courts or other authorities reviewed, for example in social insurance claims or to represent someone in inheritance matters. I was also regularly invited to give input presentations, including in institutions where young adults with disabilities can complete training. The purpose of these exchanges was to highlight the opportunities of a guardianship and to address the uncertainties of parents and those affected.

How were you confronted with the issue of violence against people with disabilities?
Contact with this topic is varied in this professional field. A guardianship is a drastic measure and is usually only established if there is no alternative to safeguarding the rights of the person concerned. As a professional guardian, we have often received cases in which a great deal had already gone wrong and the private environment was no longer able to manage the situation in the interests of the person concerned. Cases in which the person has been subjected to physical or psychological violence for a long time are unfortunately not uncommon.

Can you give examples?
This ranges from overprotection and “childization” of those affected to abuse of pensions and serious psychological and physical abuse. The crime scenes are diverse and include the family environment, institutions and also places of leisure. For example, I had to deal with a case of assault relevant under criminal law in which the victim was molested by a roommate in the home and the home only identified and reported the perpetrator’s actions after a long time.

How do you explain the fact that so few victims report to the victim counseling centers?
There is a large dark field. Depending on the severity of the impairment and the type of abuse, those affected are unable to classify the events or seek help. In addition, those affected are often in a relationship of dependency. If the violence originates from the family or care system, it is difficult for the victim to take action against the caregivers. On the other hand, it often takes a very long time for these abuses to be noticed from the outside, as they take place in a hidden, supposedly protected environment. If there is a suspicion of violence against the attachment figure, it is also very difficult to report this suspicion. It is an intrusion into a very intimate and personal area and can cause great unrest in the system even if the suspicion is not substantiated.

Where would you start to change this?
Targeted training and awareness-raising campaigns are needed for people who work in institutions and in the healthcare sector. This includes staff in care homes, educational institutions and psychiatric clinics, guardians, caregivers and doctors. Ideally, cases of abuse could be better recognized through targeted awareness-raising. In addition, it would be helpful to have a specialized counselling centre that can be consulted in cases of suspected abuse and can help to classify the behaviour of the person concerned or the situation.

Gender Equality and Diversity Department Basel-Stadt

Evelyne Sturm heads the Equality and Diversity department, which also includes the specialist unit for the rights of people with disabilities. Recently, the Gender equality plan 2024-2027 published. The following measure is mentioned in the “Violence and safety” field of action: “Addressing the situation of people with disabilities in the context of domestic violence and sexualized violence and formulating recommendations for action.”

You were in contact with numerous stakeholder groups during the development of the equality plan. What statements led to the formulation of the measure on the situation of people with disabilities?
When developing the equality plan, it was important for us to take into account the specific concerns of different groups and multiple discrimination in all areas of action in the plan. For this reason, we paid particular attention to intersectional overlaps from the outset when analyzing the situation. This means that people are simultaneously discriminated against on the basis of different characteristics and that these forms of discrimination can interact. Various studies clearly show that violence against people with disabilities is a gender equality issue that must also be considered from a gender perspective. A need was recognized here in the development of the plan and a corresponding measure was included.

What is the purpose of this measure? What specific steps are required?
The aim is to integrate the topic into existing vessels in the area of domestic violence and sexualized violence. In a first step, we will discuss the current research findings and recommendations. Recommendations for action in various areas will be derived on this basis. In the canton of Basel-Stadt, we are working successfully with round tables at which delegates from various specialist areas of the administration and civil society work together.

Office for Child, Youth and Disability Services Basel-Landschaft

Sandra Janett works in the Disability Services department, in the Benefits and Supervision division.

You issue licenses to institutions for people with disabilities or impairments. What conditions do you impose to ensure that violence against disabled or dependent people is prevented?
Sandra Janett: According to the “Regulations for the Prevention of Violence with a Focus on Sexual Violence”, providers of disability services in the canton of Basel-Landschaft are obliged to develop a facility-specific concept for the prevention of and approach to (sexual) violence. The implementation of this concept is checked as part of the regular supervisory visits by the Office for Children, Youth and Disability Services (AKJB).

What qualitative requirements do you have with regard to internal hotlines and protection concepts?
The minimum quality requirements for the institution-specific concept and the institutions are extensive. A detailed list of the requirements is set out in the “Regulations on the Prevention of Violence”. According to the regulations, when appointing internal contact persons, care must be taken to ensure that they are both male and female. Disability service providers in the canton of BL are also obliged to designate a contact point that is independent of the operational management and the sponsoring body and to which a person with a disability or their legal representative can turn. Contact persons for such a contact point can either be appointed by the sponsoring bodies across all facilities, especially in the case of sponsoring bodies with several facilities. Or they can be organized in cooperation with the ombudsman’s office of IG PRIKOP (Private Coordination of Psychiatry) and the Association of Social Enterprises in beider Basel (SUbB). The contact points for complaints also take care to designate a woman and a man as contact persons.

How do you explain the fact that so few people with disabilities who are affected by violence turn to a victim counseling center?
In order to better understand this, it is advisable to get in touch with those affected directly to find out more about the reasons. There are also several points of contact and contact points that affected people can turn to.   

What can victim support centers do so that they can be approached more often by victims?
One possibility could be for the victim support centers to increase the information about their services. Information should be accessible in simple and easy language. Explanatory videos also promote understanding. In order to strengthen information and understanding, cooperation between the victim support center and the SUbB and self-advocacy groups of people with disabilities could be suitable.