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How to prevent, report and respond to suspected abuse of anyone supported by the Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program.
The Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program has an Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol. It helps make sure you are safe while you are receiving PDD services.
Everyone on your support team must follow this protocol including your family members, PDD worker, service providers and staff if you have Family Managed Services. The protocol talks about how to:
People with developmental disabilities are often at greater risk of being abused or taken advantage of by others. Abuse occurs when another person does something that could harm you or does harm you. The protocol identifies 6 types of abuse and the warning signs it may be happening.
Physical abuse is when there is injury to any part of your body. The injury might leave bruises and marks that can be seen, but can also include internal injuries that are hard to spot. Physical abuse can happen only once or many times. It may include:
Sexual abuse is when you experience unwanted sexual contact, activity or behaviour. This means you are not okay with what is happening and you may have said ‘no’ or ‘stop’. These situations may include:
Neglect or negligence is when you are not receiving the daily care and support you need. This may include someone not providing you with:
This type of abuse causes you to experience sadness, fear, anger and other difficult emotions. Sometimes you may feel stress from the way you feel because of how someone is treating you. This stress can make you act differently, have problems thinking and/or make you feel sick. Emotional abuse can happen when your support people:
Exploitation is when someone takes advantage of you. Examples include:
A restrictive procedure is when someone does something that limits your movement, behaviour or access to people, possessions or events. Good restrictive procedures:
A restrictive procedure may be abuse when:
People who are being abused may show these warning signs:
When there is physical abuse a person may:
When there is sexual abuse a person may:
When there is neglect a person may:
When there is emotional abuse a person may:
When there is exploitation a person may:
When restrictive procedures are used improperly a person may:
The PDD program tries to help you live as independently as possible in your community. The more you are involved with your community, the less abuse happens. The Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol talks about ideas to reduce abuse.
Everyone on your support team is responsible for understanding and using these ideas. Some examples include:
Suspected abuse must be reported. You or someone on your support team can call:
Family Managed Services Administrators and agencies must inform the PDD program about suspected abuse by filing 2 or more reporting forms.
PDF form issues
Fillable PDF forms do not open properly on some mobile devices and web browsers. To fill in and save the form:
Use the Abuse Prevention and Response Protocol Report Forms to file:
The Alberta provincial abuse helpline and the Protection for Persons in Care reporting line work with the PDD program to make sure abuse is stopped. After your PDD worker gets the information about the suspected abuse, they will contact you and/or your family to make sure you are safe. They also contact everyone who is providing your PDD services to make sure you have access to support to help keep you safe. Everyone will work together to review the situation.
All reported abuse is reviewed to:
There are 2 types of reviews:
An internal review is started by your service provider, Family Managed Services Administrator or PDD worker. It can happen 3 ways:
An external review is completed by the PDD program. Anyone who is providing your PDD services or involved in your planning must help provide information for the review.
After the internal or external review is completed, there is a final report that:
Your PDD worker meets with you and your support team to discuss the report and how to make sure the ideas to stop the abuse are put in place.
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