Disabled at greater risk of violence and subsequent mental ill-health

People with disabilities are at a greater risk of being the victims of violence and of suffering mental ill health when victimised, according to research published today in the open access journal PLOS ONE . The research, led by Hind Khalifeh (UCL Brain Sciences) with colleagues from UCL and King's College London, is the first to assess the extent to which people with disabilities experience different kinds of violence and the associated health and economic costs. The authors analysed data from the 2009-2010 British Crime Survey to estimate the odds of a person with physical or mental disabilities experiencing physical, sexual, domestic or non-domestic violence. The survey did not include individuals with disabilities living in institutions. On the whole, the authors found that, compared to those without any disability, the odds of being a victim of violence in the past year were three-fold higher for those with mental illness-related disability, and two-fold higher for those with physical disability. The odds were similarly raised for physical and sexual violence, and for domestic and non-domestic violence. If the risk for people with disability could be brought down to the same level as for those without disability there would be around 116,000 fewer disabled victims annually.