Why We All Need To Learn Consent And Boundaries
Consent and boundaries are really the foundation of life. Without it, we are all vulnerable to be treated poorly.
The NSW Aging and Disability Commission released a report about neglect of older people and adults with disabilities in December 2025. In this report, it showed coercive control was often linked to abuse and was reported in 51% of the 474 cases analysed for the report. 12% of people did not know what to do in the neglectful and/or abusive situation, 22% did not realise the seriousness of the situation, 23% allegedly refused to help the person they were supporting and 46% of people who were victims of the abuse and/or neglect did not have their wishes or views supported.
These statistics show us important information, not only does it show us that a large number of adults with disabilities are still being neglected and/or abused, it also highlights the large gap in knowledge of consent and boundaries for both the support person and the person that needs support.
Some of the people who were labelled the abuser had claimed that burnout and stress forced them to treat the people they were supporting, so poorly. Not only do we need more support when the carer is in burnout, but we also need more knowledge of consent and boundaries for both the carer and the person receiving the care.
We really need to be utilising a wrap around approach, where both the people giving support, and the people receiving support, have all learnt the same information.
This is exactly why Pleasure Pixel has created a course for people supporting others, and a program for people who require support.
Pleasure Pixel has an online professional development course for people in a support and/or caring role, called Support the Sexual Health Needs of People Living with Disabilities. You don’t have to be a support worker to do this course, while the strategies are aimed at the scope of the role of a support worker, they can really be applied to the scope of the role, for any carer of a person with disabilities.
The foundation of the course though, is consent and boundaries. Some of the questions that are answered and the learners are asked to reflect on include:
What does consent in a caring role look like (particularly if people only think of consent, as asking for sex)
When does consent need to be asked for and given? What does that sound like?
What if a person I am supporting has boundaries that I don’t agree with?
What can my boundaries look like in a support role?
While the course is focused on learning sexual health information and how it is related to disability. The skills that are learnt in the course are all based on consent and boundaries. The course empowers the learner to be confident in their scope when supporting a person with disabilities, particularly when sexual health is involved.
Then we have a new program that is super exciting, because it is built for people with disabilities. My Life, My Body: Online Program. While it is taking a while to build this program, Pleasure Pixel has released the first 2 chapters of the program as an early release taster of the program.
What are the first 2 chapters?
Chapter 1 is focused on Consent. We cover both sexual consent and non-sexual consent. What consent looks like with people who support us, versus what consent looks like in a sexual relationship.
Chapter 2 is focused on Boundaries. We look at boundaries in non-sexual relationships and sexual relationships. We link consent to both, and learn what consent and boundaries look and sound like.
Why the focus on consent and boundaries? Research shows us that while people living with disabilities are often left out of comprehensive sexual health education, they are also more vulnerable to abuse because of increased support needs, and the lack of health literacy around their bodies, relationships and how they work.
That was the driver for me (Casey) to write the program. It started as an eBook called My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy, and I just kept thinking how great it would be to actually have a program that is online for accessibility, filled with information, video’s and activities, to build a person’s capacity to understand their life and their body.
Hence the name - My Life, My Body: Online Program.
“When we know better, we can do better” Maya Angelou.
We don’t need to shame ourselves or others.
We need to learn more, so that we can do better.
So that we can treat each other with respect, even when we are struggling.
So that we can notice earlier, when something isn’t right and how we can get help.
To see the infographic of the report (with the links to the full report), you can download it here.
To see our program and professional development course, click the links below:
My Life, My Body: Online Program - Early Release
Support the Sexual Health Needs of People with Disabilities
More information about the program is here.
More information about the course is here.