Institutions for persons with disabilities
residents and the staff is more frequent. Working with persons with multiple
disabilities in particular can result in the extreme overload of organisations.
Commission 6 twice visited one facility in Lower Austria that also admits adult
residents with high aggression potential. The staff claimed not to have been
sufficiently prepared for the admission of three clients who, in addition to an
intellectual impairment since birth, also required psychiatric treatment. Other
residents in particular had to suffer from uncontrollable, aggressive, impulsive
outbursts and aggression towards others as well as occasional physical attacks
both as victims but also as observers. There was no clear concept on how to
deal with this situation and which type of support has to be offered to the
other affected residents.
Human Rights Advisory
Council drafts statement
on vicitim support
The NPM observed that victim support aspects were structurally denied in this
facility and requested the Human Rights Advisory Council to address this topic
using the incidents as a basis. The experts drafted an extensive statement that
can be read on the AOB website. The NPM hopes to have created easier access
to the document developed for them in an “easy to read” version in particular.
The following aspects are depicted as extracts:
The Human Rights Advisory Council emphasised that persons with disabilities
in assisted institutions and facilities belong to a particularly vulnerable group.
The possibilities to set boundaries as well as accept help after experiencing
violence are few. Therefore, mechanisms and measures are required to protect
the human rights of those affected. At the same time, it is also important
not to respond to those who act aggressively towards others and who have
severe intellectual impairments and psychiatric disorders exclusively with
criminalisation, enforcement and cancellation of the home contracts. This
would thwart any successful attempt at providing support.
The protection of these victims cannot be subject to any compromise. Top
priority must be given to the safety of persons in institutions and facilities. This
includes anchoring a professional approach in the institutions and taking
clear stance on violence.
Missing violence
protection concepts
Suitable quality standards should be defined as the basis for effective victim
support. Currently, guidelines on dealing with violence in institutions for
persons with disabilities are not available in all Laender. All of the Laender
should define these standards in order to prescribe a clear course of action for
operator organisations.
Regardless of this, operators must ensure that persons can live (and work)
in their facilities without violence. In order to reach this goal, preventive
approaches have to be implemented in three areas: in primary prevention
by preventing aggressive behaviour; in secondary prevention by taking deescalation measures; and in tertiary prevention through structured follow-up.
Sufficient resources are a basic condition for achieving this goal. Clients who
88
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents