Preventing and treating sexual abuse in children with disabilities: use of a team model of intervention.

The general effects of poverty, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, or other social problems are likely to be entangled with the specific effects of sexual abuse. The team is the most appropriate model for the prevention and treatment of the complex issue of sexual abuse in children with disabilities. Advanced practice pediatric nurses can play a key role as team leaders, providing much-needed expertise on this issue of sexual abuse. The purposes of this article are to address the needs of children with disabilities who are in the public school system and to describe how a team model, with an advanced practice pediatric nurse as team leader, could be used to identify and treat children with disabilities who have been sexually abused.