Disability Abuse Prevention And Response

Those delivering DAPAR are a team of disabled-led and community-led specialists in family and sexual violence for disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori and Adults at Risk.

The overall goal of DAPAR is to create safety and improve wellbeing and outcomes for tāngata whaikaha Māori and disabled people who are at risk of, or experiencing, violence, abuse, neglect or harm.

 DAPAR does this by:

• Working directly with the disabled person and tāngata whaikaha Māori and building a Safeguarding Adults from Abuse (SAFA) multi-agency response to individual situations of concern
• supporting disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori to access mainstream family violence and sexual violence (FVSV) services
• building capacity and capability of individuals, organisations, services and systems through education and training.

DAPAR is not an emergency or crisis service. At this stage DAPAR is only receiving referrals for SAFA responses to situations of concern from Disability Support Services (DSS) and NASC/EGL sites.

DSS has contracted VisAble external to deliver the DAPAR approach.

How to access DAPAR support from VisAble

 You can make a referral to VisAble for support if you or someone you know is: 

1. An adult (18 years old or over), and
2. A disabled person or tangata whaikaha Māori, and
3. Who is experiencing (or at risk of) abuse, violence and neglect.

 VisAble will review the referral and prioritise which situations need the most urgent response. Priority is given to people who:  

1. Are eligible for DSS funded disability supports, or
2. those who are unable to remove themselves from an unsafe situation, or
3. those who are experiencing more severe abuse, violence or neglect.

Definitions

There are some words used in the area of safeguarding that are useful to understand:

Abuse: An act that may result in harm to a person, and could be physical, sexual, emotional, financial. Abuse means treating someone else badly, hitting someone or saying mean things.  

Neglect: Failure to meet the basic needs of people (for example, adequate food, medication, health care, essential support). Neglect is when someone does not look after someone else when they should or give them what they need.  

Disabled person: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) defines a disability as any long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder the full and effective participation of disabled people in society on an equal basis with others. People with impairments are disabled if society does not provide an environment that takes their impairments adequately into account.  

Tāngata whaikaha Māori: Māori disabled people.   

DSS: Disability Support Services, disability supports funded by the Ministry of Social Development.  

DAPAR: the Disability Abuse Prevention and Response service.  

Safeguarding: taking action to prevent, identify and respond to situations where a person is experiencing or is at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect, violence, or harm. Safeguarding protects a person’s right to make their own decisions for their life, including decisions about their safety and wellbeing.   

Vulnerable Adults: Identifying ‘Vulnerable Adults’ and responding to changes in the Crimes Act 1961, introduced in 2012, mean that certain people are legally responsible for protecting ‘vulnerable adults’ from serious harm. The Act defines a ‘vulnerable adult’ as a person “who is unable, by reason of detention, age, sickness, mental impairment, or any other cause, to withdraw themselves from the care or charge of another person”.   

Adult at Risk: The disability community and family violence experts prefer this term instead of vulnerable adult. An adult at risk is defined as someone who meets all three of the following criteria:  

1. A person (aged 18 years or over) who has an unmet need for appropriate support, and 
2. who is experiencing (or at risk of) harm, violence, abuse, and neglect, and 
3. because of an unmet need for support, is unable to protect themself. 

SAFA: Safeguarding Adults from Abuse. A SAFA approach responds to safeguarding concerns and situations of abuse by working directly with the disabled person and building a multi-agency response with that person, including police, health, disability providers and NASC. 

High level goals

The goal of DAPAR is to provide a national response to safeguarding adults concerns and situations of abuse of disabled adults. The priority group at this early stage is disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori receiving supports funded by Disability Support Services (DSS).

This will involve the three approaches:

1. Working directly with disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori. Building a multi-agency response with that person and their family and whānau. A multi -agency response could include police, health, family and sexual violence services, disability providers and NASC/EGL. 
2. Supporting disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori to access mainstream FVSV services.
3. DAPAR will also build capacity and capability across communities, agencies, and the health, disability, and violence prevention sectors, to be responsive to situations of abuse of disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori. This will include providing education, training and tools and supporting organisations to develop their policy and practice.  

DAPAR is not an emergency or crisis service, and the appropriate emergency service must be contacted in those instances.

Background 

Disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori experience higher rates of abuse and harm compared to non-disabled people. Additionally, there is evidence that being supported in disability services can increase the likeliness of abuse. 

Safeguarding is particularly important to disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori who: 

• are at risk of, or experiencing harm, violence, abuse, and neglect
• for various reasons are not able to remove themselves from a risk of harm and keep themselves safe
• are experiencing compromised human rights.

Safeguarding approaches for disabled people includes a twin-track response where we are collectively developing:

1. Mainstream family violence, sexual violence, and disability services so they are accessible and responsive for disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori
2. Specialist safeguarding adults from abuse (SAFA) responses according to the SAFA multi-agency approach, initially developed in Waitematā.

Prototype/model

In 2023 Whaikaha set up DAPAR as a short-term prototype or model for a new way of working. In 2024 the responsibility for DAPAR transferred to DSS. The model is being tested to see if it creates better outcomes for the safety and wellbeing of disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori.

The DAPAR approach is funded through Te Puna Aonui family violence Budget 2023 funding over four years, as part of Te Aorerekura, the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence. DSS has also provided funding for VisAble to support NASC/EGL with safeguarding issues.

DSS and VisAble are taking a try, learn, adjust approach to support the success of the prototype and to inform changes needed to service design and implementation. 

Future procurement

In 2024-25 a procurement process for DAPAR will occur. This will be advertised on the DSS website, through the GETS page and sent to community networks.

Alternate formats

Alternate formats for this information have been commissioned and will be added as soon as they are available.