Psychologists’ Experience with Interviewing and Analyzing Abuse Allegations of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abuse among persons with an Intellectual Disability is a significant problem. In contrast to the gravity of this problem,
there currently exists a gap in Practitioners’ ability to use a recognized and standardized approach to interview or analyze
abuse cases when investigating them. This survey was an initial exploration of the practices of a sample of Downstate NY Psychologists
regarding their training, supervision and processing of abuse allegations. A primary finding indicates that there isn’t a
consistently used, standardized method of interviewing and analyzing accounts of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from
persons with an intellectual disability. Also, the psychologists indicated that they followed their supervising psychologists’
guidance when interviewing and then analyzing interviews for credibility, which were not standardized across areas sampled.