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Sexual Assistance in Italy: An Explorative Study on the Opinions of People with Disabilities and Would-Be Assistants

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Abstract

Providing assistance services for sexual activity is becoming of increasing importance to the community of people with disabilities and to mental health professionals. Nevertheless, the literature on this topic is sparse. The aim of this study is to explore potential clients’ and assistants’ views, needs, experiences, opinions, and concerns about sexual assistance (SA) in Italy. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 people with a congenital physical disability and 10 would-be assistants. A Grounded Theory approach was used to analyze data. Participants with disabilities considered SA useful. Despite most of them having unfulfilled sexual needs, they would prefer to have their sexual needs met within a romantic relationship. Would-be assistants constructed themselves as people who have a “natural aptitude to being useful”. Results suggest that SA services might represent an opportunity for people with disabilities to discover new ways to satisfy their personal needs and to live more autonomously while, at the same time, allowing would-be sexual assistants to fulfill their desire to be helpful. Nevertheless, the use of SA is likely to only be a part of the answer to fulfilling the sexual needs of people with disabilities.

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Acknowledgments

No NIH/Wellcome Trust funding or other financial support has been received for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Giorgia Rosamaria Gammino & Sabrina Cipolletta

  2. Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Elena Faccio

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  1. Giorgia Rosamaria Gammino
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Correspondence to Sabrina Cipolletta.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the academic research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gammino, G.R., Faccio, E. & Cipolletta, S. Sexual Assistance in Italy: An Explorative Study on the Opinions of People with Disabilities and Would-Be Assistants. Sex Disabil 34, 157–170 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-016-9435-y

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