En littaturstudie om kvinnor med psykisk funktionsnedsättning samt deras dubbla utsatthet

Our literature study aims to investigate the social services' work with abused women with disabilities. The reason for this is that women with mental disabilities are often in a position of dependence on the people who perpetrate violence in close relationships. According to previous research, mentally disabled women have a greater risk of being exposed to violence in close relationships than women who do not have a mental disability. We also assume that there is a large number of unreported cases as women with disabilities may have difficulties that affect their ability to defend themselves and protect their integrity. The violence can be perpetrated by a close partner or a relative, but also by caregivers such as home care staff, housing staff, and taxi drivers. The violence can thus occur in different situations where the woman is dependent on others in her everyday life. According to Chapter 5, Section 11 of the Social Services Act, it is stated that the Social Welfare Board should ensure that the victim of a crime and his or her relatives receive support and help. In addition to this, the social welfare board should take special account of the fact that women who are or have been exposed to violence and other domestic abuse may be in need of support and help to change their situation. This leads us to ask what working methods the municipalities apply through existing routines and guidelines, to make violence in close relationships with mentally disabled women visible. In what way is information about exposure to violence handled, and are the municipalities able to meet the support and protection needs of mentally disabled women? We would like to investigate whether the social services have moderately adapted methods based on proven experience and scientific basis. We have these questions as a starting point when we search for existing empirical research data. The theoretical basis we use are the intersectional perspective and systems theory. The intersectional perspective describes different power structures and factors that affect the opportunities for abused women with mental disabilities to be able to take advantage of their rights. The intersectional perspective thus constitutes an explanatory model based on different power structures that interact with each other based on gender, class, ethnicity, age, disability and sexuality. With this study, we want to highlight how user participation and influence are also governed by current case law and what crucial role these have for the user perspective. With the help of our questions, we want to expose the working methods of social services. This is to be able to make visible the exposure to violence for women with mentaldisabilities and what room for manoeuvre these women have to be able to influence their need for support. This work could in turn place certain demands on the work of the professionals. With the help of the study, it is possible to further investigate the possible shortcomings that exist, which in turn can lead to improvement work in the social services. In addition to this, we want to increase the knowledge of the professionals about this subject, as there seems to be many unreported cases and knowledge gaps in the subject of abused women with mental disabilities. This can also spark social debates around this topic, which can be beneficial for the target group. With our literature study, we will examine the empirical data of existing and current research. This research empirical data is based on different methods, which can be both qualitative and quantitative studies, i.e. based on interview studies, questionnaire studies or experimental studies that researchers have compiled. With the support of Naive Reading as a research method, we have searched for research reports in various databases and made a selection. Furthermore, we have produced these current research empirical data that we believe are best suited for our work in this research field. As previously mentioned, we will use existing material to analyse existing research based on the theoretical starting points, which in turn will provide us with answers to the questions posed by the study.