People with IDD are sexually assaulted at seven times the rate of people without disabilities. Health care professionals are in a frontline position to educate their patients about—and potentially stop or prevent—sexual violence and abuse, but they often have little or no experience talking about this issue with people who have IDD. People with IDD are also unlikely to raise the topic on their own. They may not know what constitutes sexual violence or how to describe it.

Talk About Sexual Violence provides practical tools to address this silent epidemic through a supported decision-making lens that supports victim-centered approaches. This webpage provides easy-to-use access tools that include:

• Short training videos for health care professionals
• Charts and other tools for guided conversation
• Focus group findings: video and reports
• Annual project reports

By empowering survivors with disabilities in the reporting process and giving health care professionals the tools to more effectively identify victims, connect them to appropriate services, and help build their self-advocacy skills, we can better navigate and better prevent sexual violence.