Events: Conference Presentations

AAMR 126th Annual Meeting and Exhibit Show

AAMR 126th Annual Meeting and Exhibit Show- Orlando, FL 2002

Hickson, L.; Khemka, I; Will, G.; Golden, H.; & Grame, C. Effective Strategy-based Curriculum for Abuse Prevention and Empowerment (ESCAPE).

This three year project focused on the buliding of a comprehensive model for domestic violence and abuse prevention for women with mental retardation. The project, funded by the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, represents a collaboration between the Center for Opportunities and Outcomes for People with Disabilities at Teachers College, Columbia University and AHRC, New York City, an agency that provides a comprehensive continuum of services for people with mental retardation. The project was designed to address the problem of the heightened vulnerability of women with mental retardation to domestic violence and abuse and represents an effort to empower women with mental retardation to protect themselves against violence and abuse. The project focused on the development, evaluation and dissemination of a systematic educational curriculum, entitle Effective Strategy-based Curriculum for Abuse Prevention and Empowerment: ESCAPE. The primary focus of the curriculum was to empower women with mental retardation to become more effective decision-makers so that they are able to protect themselves against violence and abuse in the home and community, involving known relationships of participants with their partners, family members, friends, and acquaintances.

Significant post-intervention differences in favor of the treatment group have been obtained for three of the measures: empowerment, definitions of abuse, and open-ended and multiple-choice independent prevention focused self decision-making. These preliminary findings reveal the positive effects of receiving the project curriculum ESCAPE.