A long time ago I did a placement at a charity for people who had learning disabilities. Their client group often had quite significant cognitive impairments but many were living with some degree of independence, in housing projects run by the charity.
I remember staff talking in a meeting about a female client who was very sexually active and would have sex with a succession of men. The attitude seemed to be that as long as she was getting her regular contraceptive injection then it was ok. I didn’t think much about this at the time (and went into a different field) but I look back now and wonder if some of that was sexual exploitation of the woman, who was also quite young and presumably sexually attractive. But the approach of staff was very laissez faire…
By chance I stumbled across an account of work around gender identity with people who have learning disabilities. It made me feel very uneasy as it is a complex area and the client group are very vulnerable to exploitation.
Does anyone in the social care sphere have any insight into what is happening in this area?
Where is the balance between encouraging agency and preventing harm?