This email comes with a trigger warning as the research isn’t easy to read.
When it released this article highlighting the research and associated report, The University of Sunderland called it “bleak yet incredibly important research.”
It was fundamentally important for me, along with Dr Pearson, to bring to light the many ways Autistic People are abused, wittingly and unwittingly, by the people who should be supporting us, caring for us and advocating for us; the people often closest to us, emotionally and physically, in whom we should be able to trust.
As Autistic people ourselves it wasn’t easy research to conduct.
Whilst there is a trigger warning if you read the report and the research, because truly it IS bleak, I’m also hearing that Autistic People are finding it incredibly validating.
As Amy and I state in the report:
“We need a new narrative that highlights the trauma Autistic people experience through victimisation, but which also shines a spotlight on the role of perpetrators, rather than what the victims should be doing to change.”
We truly hope that victims of abuse will see themselves as just that. Victims.
They weren’t at fault. They weren’t to blame.
The paper is sub-titled: “I felt like I deserved it because I was Autistic” and we sincerely hope that from reading the research Autistic People will realise that they did NOT deserve it and they were indeed victims.
If you would like to read the research in full you can do that here: ‘I felt like I deserved it because I was autistic’: Understanding the impact of interpersonal victimisation in the lives of autistic people’
If you would like to read the report generated by the research you can do that here: IPV Report
Please do let me and Amy know what you think of the research. We’re both active on Twitter (@KieranRose7 and DrAmyPearson) and you can reply to this email.
And please do share the research so that we can ensure the vital and necessary changes are made to stop this abuse.
Be kind to yourself, Kieran
With thanks to Dr Amy Pearson and John Rees, both of The University of Sunderland, for your work with me on this research. And to Kathy Reed from DBK for designing the report.
CITATIONS
If you would like to cite this article please visit the article on Sage Journals – ‘I felt like I deserved it because I was autistic’: Understanding the impact of interpersonal victimisation in the lives of autistic people and cite it from there (you will find a citation tool to give you all of the correct information).
ONLINE TRAINING FROM KIERAN ROSE
I have a range of online training available on the website which is suitable for Autistic People, parents and carers of Autistic People as well as professionals.
