Supporting Crime Victims with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)

In 2020 and 2021, THINK+change trained hundreds of victim service providers throughout Colorado with support from the Office for Victims Programs on how to best support, serve and interact with adult crime victims who have developmental disabilities. The 4-part online, on-demand, self-paced, video slide-based lecture that reviews:

·Disability and characteristics: Developmental Disability (DD), Intellectual Disability (ID), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), cues and clues 1.25 hours - Provides baseline knowledge about citizens with IDD, including definitions for DD, ID, ASD; information on communication challenges; differences between IDD, Mental Illness, learning disability; adaptive functioning; pre-and non-verbal communication; cues and clues to ID; and communication support resources. 

·Communication supports; competence and capacity – 1.25 hours - Offers fundamentals of consent, informed consent, competence and capacity, and least to most intrusive forms of supportive and surrogate decision-making supports.

·Victimization, accommodations, and disability bias – 1.25 hours - Focuses on understanding incidence and prevalence of victimization of people with IDD; ADA accommodations; and a review of best practices for interacting with someone who uses a wheelchair, who is blind, who has a service animal, who is Deaf, and who has a DD; and how disability bias may impact interactions with victims with disabilities.

·IDD system and resources – 1.25 hours - Includes information on Medicaid and Colorado Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Medicaid Waivers that support adults with IDD, Single Entry Points, Community Centered Boards, Colorado Arc chapters, and other community organizations that help people with IDD.