Implications for Healing, Transformation and Prosperity: Historical and Cultural Trauma and People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Over the centuries, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have faced horrific treatment at the hands of greater society, and sometimes by the very people who care for them. In the United States, they have been subject to abuse, neglect, eugenics crusades, forced sterilization, involuntary separation from their families and communities in the form of institutionalization, and continued discrimination and oppression. This paper examines the impact those suffrages have had on people with IDD and their communities across the social determinants of health, concluding that today, this population is suffering from the effects of Historical and Cultural Trauma. With that understanding, a trauma-informed lens to healing can be applied to foster prosperity and transformation for people with IDD and the communities who support them.