Support and advice on relationships

A casual cafe catch-up in Warragul next Monday will offer support and advice to adults with disabilities about respectful relationships.

Gippsland Centre Against Sexual Assault run the sessions in conjunction with New Wave self advocacy group.

The sessions are based on the Sexual Lives and Respectful Relationships program that focuses on talking and learning about sexuality and relationship rights, sexual health, and violence and abuse prevention.

GCASA project co-ordinator Ginger Ekselman said the sessions focussed on educating adults with intellectual disabilities to understand what respectful relationships are, prevention of sexual assault and family violence.

Ms Ekselman said the rates of sexual assault and family violence among adults with disabilities was much higher than in the general population.

"People with cognitive impairments are two and a half times more likely to experience sexual assault," she said.

Ms Ekselman said this abuse came from support workers, family members and strangers.

She said the sessions were run in conjunction with peer educators and professional counsellors. "Because the statistics are so high, we often have victims of abuse or family violence at out sessions. We are well set-up to support that. We have trained counsellors there and refer people to professional support agencies," she said.

Ms Ekselman said the strength of the SL&RR program was it was developed by adults with disabilities in conjunction with researchers and was delivered using a peer education model.

One of those peer educators is Rachel Walters, who as a victim shares her story, her experiences and supports others.

She encouraged adults with disabilities to attend the coffee session because it was a casual and relaxed way of gaining an understanding of respectful relationship in a supported environment.

The Warragul cafe catch-up will be held at Newmason on Monday, March 7 at 10.30am.