It’s been a while since I wrote an update on the current environment for people with learning disabilities. Any regular readers here will be aware of my commentary on the various appalling abuse cases that have occurred over the last few years, and one’s from the deep dark past. As I am about to move into a new role professionally specifically to develop the right kind of services I thought I’d catch up and look through some recent events.
There are many good news stories out there right now, social clubs, employment schemes and artistic achievements of people with learning disabilities and I will discuss those in another piece sometime but my work and my current concern is addressing poor practice and often fixing the problems support providers have made. It easy to focus on the negative but this doesn’t represent all services, but just case for doing better in some ways. Full warning as the content of some of the articles I am going to share is deeply unpleasant, but you should know about it. It’s not good news…
Let’s start with this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-50261407/horrific-treatment-of-my-autistic-daughter a very familiar story unfortunately. Vulnerable people are placed in secure units for a variety of reasons, largely to keep themselves safe but the stay averages at around 5 years! And the conditions in this story and many others is the same. These are not homes, they are not comfortable and there is no freedom. This kind of practice was supposed to stop but it continues.
Watch the video to see the story, I won’t go into here but it is a perfect example of where services fail people.
This story is an interesting one https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-50301184 as there have been recent calls to ensure appropriate training for social care, health and teaching professionals around Autism and Learning Disabilities (something I have go on about many times) But it is a clear example where a professional overrode the wishes of a family, something we all need to be conscious of. This story has been around for a while https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-50110124 and really makes me ill. It shows that the staff either didn’t care, or were inappropriately trained to support this women and her health needs. I have dealt with the aftermath of very similar stories and always find many problems. These are institutional problems and they don’t ever need to happen. This is not self-neglect, this is professional neglect.
In another very different example of institutional failure is this very strange story. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-49413833 A man with a disability is given the job of caring for more vulnerable people. Inherently that isn’t bad, but clearly the man was not capable or aware of what he should or shouldn’t do. His crime is a crime and he should be treated appropriately for that, but he was set up to fail by the organisation in the first place.
This one is rather shocking https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-50152839. One of the aforementioned secure “hospitals” was closed nearly as soon as it opened due to abuse and poor practice. It is quite astonishing how this happened so recently considering stories like this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-49826539 which is yet another example of a service being a place of abuse and crime. After Winterbourne View, measures (and indeed laws) were put in place to close and change these types of places and stop any abuse, but it continues. Mostly these are in isolated places which means they are rarely monitored. Clearly CQC and the local authorities aren’t doing their jobs properly but how can the organisations allow this to happen? Not much has changed.
Those are just a few cases, there are other trials ongoing for similar ones from recent years and luckily people are being imprisoned for their crimes. Despite that, and people being caught and punished these are problems that just shouldn’t happen. It would be easy for the public to read this and think that all providers of support and care for the vulnerable are like this but I can assure you they are not.
Over all, conditions for people with disabilities have improved massively. Less poverty, longer lives and better health care, better education, better understanding are real compared to 20, 50 or 100 years ago. That makes these cases more shocking, they aren’t the normal things that happen each day around the UK.
Organisations like the Care Quality Commission monitor many health care and support services but only some. They do ensure good practice at times but have missed many cases of abuse. This clearly shows the need for greater and more invasive auditing of services. There is a need for some kind of learning disability services register where all types of support and care providers are listed and have some kind of accreditation to prove they are of good quality, and safe. I would happily sign up my organisation and know that there is nothing to hide or be questioned, but no one asks us, we can do what we want without any real external oversight. A system should be in place that works and shows that the service is up to standard.
To those who do good work, keep it up, we will continue and be recognised and hopefully the rest of the world will catch up soon.
The Everyday Behaviour Analyst 