Sex denied disabled — Aust. expert

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 6

Sex denied disabled — Aust. expert

Thousands of disabled people in Australia and New Zealand are being denied ! sexual activity because of [ community prejudice, says] an Australian expert in the! care of the physically dis-j abled. Dr D. C. Burke. Dr Burke, who is director of the spinal injuries unit at Austin Hospital in Melbourne, began a New Zealand lecture and professional tour in Christchurch yesterday, at the invitation of the. Crippled Children Society. I

The disabled in Australia! and New Zealand suffered! from the “physical” portra-l yal of sexual matters in both countries, he said. “There are a lot who think that sex is only intercourse. It is much broader than this and covers all nongenital sex activities,” Dr Burke said. In both countries the question of sexuality and disabled people was sur-i rounded by taboos, myths] and out-dated suspicions that forced the disabled into! an asexual role.

“Somehow most people in the community seem to think sexual activity by disabled people is somehow dirty. This is a ridiculous notion,” he said. Professional workers had a responsibility to ensure that the community was informed of the sexual problems of the disabled. Information and counselling on sex was vital to the disabled themselves and to their supporters.

“If you want to treat disabled people as part of the community, and that is the only intelligent approach, then they must have the right to sexual activity as well as the responsibility,” he said. Dr Burke said that Churches had a big responsibility to help break down sexual myths surrounding disabled people. Out-dated

• community attitudes could ! often be traced to sexual taboos maintained bj I Churches. “When you look at places ; where disabled people art | forced to live there should ibe places for privacy, places [for intimacy. If these ars missing then basic human richts are not being met.” The disabled needed tc take a greater part in theii own organisations if community pity was to be eliminated. In Victoria state health authorities took « leading role in providing sexual counselling for th, disabled, Dr Burke said. “Change is coming slowly, It may take 10 to 15 years for our two countries to gel rid of years of prejudice and suspicion.” he said. Dr Burke, who has worked extensively in spinal injury units in the United States, Britain and Europe, will visit Palmerston North, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland.