At a Crossroads: Pathways for Positive Intimate Relationships among Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

Moderator(s)

Melissa Jenkins, PhD, MSW

Postdoctoral Trainee
Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panelist(s)

Kimberly A. schlegel, MSW, LCSWA (she/her/hers)

I/DD Task Force Coordinator
UNC Chapel Hill, School of Social Work
LP

Laura Pacheco, MSW, PhD

Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work
Memorial University
MP

Morgan Parlier, MSW, LCSW

Clinical Social Work Faculty
Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities

Panelists will share strategies for navigating competing approaches to understanding and promoting healthy sexual and intimate relationships among individuals with developmental disabilities, including (a) non-deficit language pertaining to risk and safety, and (b) critical reflections on how social workers can best empower and advocate for clients’ sexual health needs.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, attendees should be able to:

Describe how vulnerability to intimate partner and/or sexual victimization occurs systemically and individually, using an affirmational lens that does not frame disability as a predisposition to vulnerability
Identify the benefits and challenges of nuanced versus binary-thinking approaches to teaching about intimate relationship concepts, as well as how these approaches align with the Universal Design for Learning framework
Recognize ways to promote intimate relational autonomy and self-agency, while balancing protection without paternalism