• Drug use is common. It is estimated that one in ten people in the UK have tried an illegal psychoactive drug in the last year.

• Young people use more drugs than any other age group, many by their mid-teens.

• Cannabis is the most commonly used illegal psychoactive drug.

• People use psychoactive drugs to change the way they feel.

• Psychoactive drug use can result in new feelings that would otherwise be hard to experience, or take away unwanted feelings. To feel good, or stop feeling bad.

• Sometimes psychoactive drugs are used for social gain, bringing a sense of belonging and identity.

• As we will see in Chapter 11, some people experience mental health problems which increase their risk of using drugs

• The UK has two drug laws, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. These laws place all psychoactive drugs under control and rank some drugs according to their potential to cause harm.

• The UK drug laws make it an offence to produce, supply, import or export and, in some cases, possess a psychoactive drug.

Violence can happen everywhere in the lives of young people with cognitive disability. Young people with cognitive disability, family members, and workers talk about what needs to change. Services need to work together to help young people with cognitive disability. Others need to know about and respect the culture of young people with cognitive disability. Others need to respect young people’s choices on whom they want to love. Young people with cognitive disability can be helped to understand what is violence. Services can change what they do so that they can keep young people with cognitive disability safe. Young people with cognitive disability say that there should be ‘nothing about us unless it is led by us’.

This chapter explains what this book is about. Becoming an adult is different for everybody. Young people with cognitive disability can find it hard to get the right supports to become an adult. Many young people can experience violence and abuse. This book tells the stories of young people with cognitive disability from different backgrounds. Family members and practitioners also talk about stories of young people with cognitive disability.

This chapter looks at the Department of Child Safety and the criminal justice system. Child Safety often didn’t understand that a young person had a cognitive disability. Sometimes young people with cognitive disability were abused while they were in Child Safety. Young people with cognitive disability often did not get much help when they left Child Safety. Parents with cognitive disability often had their children removed from them by Child Safety. Some young people were abused by police. Young people with cognitive disability who went to prison didn’t get much help. They also found it hard when they left prison.

Young people with cognitive disability found school to be both good and bad. Things were good when young people had friends and when teachers listened and tried to help. Things were bad when the school wanted young people with cognitive disability to be like everyone else. Young people could be punished or neglected if they didn’t fit in with everyone else. Leaving school could be hard. Young people with cognitive disability often didn’t have a job or university to go to. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that all people with disability have a right to a good education, and that people should be supported to get a job or to learn more after school.

This chapter explains how the researchers talked to young people with cognitive disability, their families, and practitioners. The researchers included people with disability on the research team. The researchers wanted to know what was happening for young people with cognitive disability. They wanted to know about the world in which young people with cognitive disability lived. There was much to be learnt about working well with people with disability in research. It’s important that people with cognitive disability have a voice in the research that is about them.

This chapter explores what we know about violence against young people with cognitive disability. It looks at what can make it more likely that young people with cognitive disability are abused. It’s hard to really know how many young people with cognitive disability have experienced violence. Young people with cognitive disability can be harmed by workers, family, or friends who are meant to help them. Abuse can happen in many places. Services and society need to learn how to keep young people with cognitive disability safe. We need to make sure young people can make decisions for themselves.

Young people with cognitive disability deserve to live in a home of their choice. They also deserve to get help when they feel mentally unwell. This chapter looks at where young people with cognitive people live. Many young people felt unsafe where they lived. Some young people needed mental health services. It could be hard to trust mental health staff. Mental health services were good when staff really wanted to help and listened to the young person. Young people with cognitive disability should be helped to make their own decisions.

Family, friends, partners, and pets can help young people with cognitive disability as they become adults. Some young people with cognitive disability had families who spoke up for them and helped them when times were hard. Some young people with cognitive disability had partners who helped them feel good about themselves. Friends could help young people with cognitive disability leave abusive situations. Professionals can do more to help young people with cognitive disability make friends and be part of their community.

Young people with cognitive disability, families, and practitioners reported many acts of violence against young people. The violence included physical abuse, sexual assault/abuse, neglect, exploitation, emotional and psychological abuse, and domestic and family violence. Young people were abused by other young people with disability, family members, partners, practitioners, and services. Young people in this book found the strength to speak up and tell their stories of violence.

This chapter tells Amethyst’s story. Amethyst is an Aboriginal and South Sea Islander young woman with cognitive disability. Amethyst is not her real name. Amethyst was abused many times as a child and a young adult. Her story can tell us a lot about what needs to change for young people with cognitive disability. We need to understand that abuse affects a person’s whole life, their family, and their world.

Becoming an adult involved lots of changes and challenges for young people with cognitive disability. Many services, and sometimes families, judged young people badly because they had a cognitive disability. Young people needed help to be independent, but this wasn’t always given to them. Some young people were lonely and found so-called friends who abused them. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young people and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds needed others to understand and respect their culture. LQBTIQA+ young people wanted love and acceptance as they became adults.

This chapter looks at services and focuses on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Services don’t always recognise what young people with cognitive disability can do. They can neglect young people with cognitive disability. This can lead to violence and abuse of the young person. This chapter looks at how young people with cognitive disability found support from NDIS agencies. Young people with cognitive disability had trouble getting onto the NDIS. Professionals, families, and young people needed to fight to make sure supports were helpful. The NDIS must get better for all people with disability.