The few categories where there were significant differences appeared to be as likely related to disability itself as to the response to abuse. For example, many more children with disabilities were described as having problems with neatness. Although most occurred with greater frequency in this group than in the control group, most of these differences were not statistically significant. The differences in the frequencies that do exist might be related to differences in the intrusiveness of the abuse or to differences in coping strategies and resilience. 381 disabled women took part in a suicide and abuse survey carried out by DAWN Canada, a disabled women's organisation.
Abuse is strongly related to suicidal feelings.
This is the second difference. Hardly any suicide prevention programs exist which tailor towards the special need of disabled people and no awareness is raised in society that disabled people are actually the group of society which is the most likely one to be abused. It is essential that we classify these crimes properly and respond to them as serious offenses in order to deter their future occurrence. Her father had planed the death over several days. Tracy had cerebral palsy.