Date: Wednesday, 17. November 2021, 17.00 h. CET, per Zoom
Speaker: Anna Contardi
Webinar’s record from 17 November 2021 is ready to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/edsachannel
Love, friendship, sex: let‘s talk about them now!
How to accompany people with DS to discover their affectivity and sexuality
The sexual development and needs for affectivity and sexuality of people with Down syndrome are the same as those of everyone else, and living them is their right.
The current scenario, however, still often relegates these dimensions to a taboo and the approach mostly used, even by those working in the field, is that of having to deal with a problem and intervene on any inappropriate behaviour, rather than finding the right words and tools to accompany people in a „healthy and physiological“ pathway that is part of the life of each individual and without which they are incomplete.
The webinar proposes a reflection on how to accompany people with Down syndrome to discover affectivity and sexuality based on the experience and activities developed in this sense by the Italian Association of People with Down Syndrome in recent years with singles, couples and groups. Both the educational path (contents and methods) and the support activities for couples will be illustrated.
Biography
Anna Contardi is Social Worker at the Associazione Italiana Persone Down (AIPD) of Rome, since 1981, the editor of the journal “Sindrome Down Notizie” quarterly distributed all over Italy, since 1983 as well as Co-ordinator of the activities of the Associazione Italiana Persone Down, since 1990.
Anna Contardi is the creator and director of the “Course for the autonomy training of Down syndrome adolescents”, since 1989 and as co-author made several movies about education, job inclusion and affectivity of people with Down Syndrome. She has contributed to carry out studies on school, work and social inclusion and more generally on the analysis of the needs of Down syndrome people and of their families.
She has attended as speaker in Congresses and Seminars on the problems of the Associations, on the social, school and work inclusion of persons with Down syndrome, on the training to autonomy of intellectual disabled people. She has published several books on these topics.
Anna was President of the European Down Syndrome Association (EDSA) from 2014 to 2017 and is currently EDSA’s vicepresident.