PARENT SESSION

Room 520-B

Sexual Rights of People with a Mental Handicap Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Time: 5:00 PM-6:00 PM

Voices of the Heart, Voices of the Body, How to accompagny them.

Agthe Diserens, Catherine^*,1, ¹ Service Santé Jeunesse, Nyon, Vaud, Switzerland

ABSTRACT- "Sexual education is an impossible yet essential task".This challenging and dynamic observation by Dr. Stanislas Tomkiewicz is all the more provocative when it is aimed at disabled children and teenagers! In the realm of widely varying disabilities, emotional capacity and sexual drive are often intact, but these needs are expressed through unusual means. The questions of disabled children and adolescents illustrate the strength of their self-consciousness and how their preoccupation with the lack of knowledge of the intimate parts of their body and of the opposite sex can push them to action. And,when they do not have access to speech, their bodies will express their needs and their shortcomings. Giving words to these basic needs will appease, postpone experimentation, and enable the development of more responsible behavior in matters of sexuality. By slowly building up their and acknowledging their emotional and sexual dimension, the focus is put on the child or adolescent, as opposed to their . It also confers respect on their intimacy and personal life! In order to meet these needs, Geneva's Youth Health Services "SSJ" has developed a new mission in recent years. Since 1975, this health education service, under the Department of Education, has been systematically teaching sex education to all children in the public school system from primary school through the end of school. It now also offers specifically adapted sexual education classes for all children and adolescents with special needs and disabilities. The SSJ recognizes the right, of all disabled children and adolescents, to an emotional, intimate and sexual life that takes into account their specific needs and challenges. The SSJ has a deep-rooted conviction that the socialization of their sexuality is essential to their integration into society, and sees this approach as a means of moving towards reaching their goal of non-discrimination. By following this innovative path, the SSJ is filling in some gaps in the system and is helping to lift taboos!

Key words: sexual-education, information, disabilities, adolescence, school