Why not the same outrage at the NAS care home abuse story as at Oxfam?

[sickofsocalledexperts]

Just that really. There was terrible abuse of vulnerable autistic and learning disabled adults at the National Autistic Society's Mendip House in Somerset. They were ridden round like horses, fed chillies, slapped and thrown in the swimming pool - all "for a laugh" and by NAS staff in a residential home that they had themselves accredited. The NAS first tried to "bury the bad news' by unveiling it via a new Twitter account with only 21 followers last Friday (marking a new low in PR strategies). And then, when that strategy backfired in spectacular fashion with a huge online backlash, they earnestly promised to be totally transparent and produce a full timeline about who knew what when . This, almost amazingly , they also tried to sneak out on Wednesday with little fanfare and using the same link (it's still up on Facebook, so if you weren't looking, you wouldn't know a new statement has been issued). Jeez, who's doing their PR?

Now sh*t happens, and bad apples turn up in institutions, but it's how quickly and how transparently you deal with them that says whether your organisation prioritises a) making damn sure this kind of abuse never happens again by shining a bright light on what went wrong or b) covering their arses.

As mum to a boy who is autistic and learning disabled, and could never tell me if someone was being nasty to him behind closed doors, I"m appalled not just by what happened at Mendip House but also how they've handled it. It's both dumb and cynical.

Also think the new statement contradicts their earlier PR positioning - that action was immediate once head office were informed of the abuse, but that sadly there were two years before that when "local management" didn't report the abuse upwards. The new timeline is playing some very silly games with wording, which gives me even less confidence that this is in fact true.

Were these poor people left at the mercy of abusive practice for 2 years because the NAS is basically a shower of shi*e?

Two things are for sure: 1) they've damaged their brand even more with this sneaky PR strategy and 2) my beloved boy will set not one foot over the door of an NAS-run school or home.

www.facebook.com/NationalAutisticSociety/

I hadn’t heard anything about this and I work in an organisation that supports adults with LDs. I’m totally shocked, and don’t understand why this hasn’t been picked up by mainstream media?

Hank you OP for highlighting this

It has been in in the media a bit, but think they put it out quietly on the old PR's favourite day Friday

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/08/somerset-care-home-staff-bullied-autistic-residents-review-finds

^^ What she said.
This is the first I'd heard too, thanks Sickof I will have a read.

The sneaky shits, they've slipped it out as a news story while Oxfam are being attacked.

Sorry op i started reading your post and had to stop, I didn't realise it wqs going to be so awful.
I am the parentof an adult with lds, not autism though.
So scares me
Sadly there seems to be a lot of bad stuff going on in carehomes. There was a big story about people dying in a chain of homes in the south last year. No mention on mn.
I couldn't start a thread as i was banned at the time

I too didn't know anything about it, until I opened your thread. I'm in tears after reading the report. Apparently they were disceplined but not charges were brought.
They physically beat, emotionally abused and terrorised these poor vulnerable people. Whose families and entrusted their loved one with them.
Why aren't they serving a long stretch in tough prison. Its a pity Alcatraz isn't still going for cunts like this.
I mean are they still working there. Surely that's a huge failure on CQC part if they are.

I’ve found it on the BBC, tucked quietly away on a local news page.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-42974755

I hate obviously hate any type of abuse, but abuse to the vulnerable really really affects me. I mean how could anyone do that.

Because people don't give a shit about autistic people.

Maybe they think those autistic people deserved it because they're freaks.

(All the above said as an autistic person)

The thing is zzzz I think they have pretty much got away with it, and are now doing a tactic which I think is known as "flooding" their timelines wth fluffy good news stories, so the Mendip House story disappears into 7th place and it all gets forgotten

Two reasons mainly.

1. Oxfam is probably one of the biggest charities and huge numbers of people routinely donate to Oxfam and feel let down/tricked that their good deed has actually funded something else.

2. sadly people just don't really care about disabled adults in this country. I've seen it time and time again as a safeguarding social worker for a local authority. Scandals come and go but unless it's a slow news week they rarely make the national press. Even if people have died.

I run a local NAS fb group and received an email suggesting I shouldn’t comment on this story but should direct people towards the NAS media folks. Disgusting.

The people that do give a shit didn't know about it.

Agree upstart - this has been totally sneaked under the radar when it should be ‘Top News’

Agree entirely, it's barely had a mention.

Reason number 16789 why I'll be keeping ds at home as long as I can.

And yet another reason why I hope he dies before I do, which is a horrific thing for any parent to say

That’s actually made me cry, I can’t understand why people would do that.

These people were bullied for over two years. Others tried to report it all the time.

What's the behind the scenes feeling about it all Prince, do you know? Did they actually know and ignore as suggested?

First I've heard of it. Fucking evil cunts

Theres a special places in the depths of Hells fire for specimens like this.

@UpstartCrow that's because those in the media are the biggest don't give a shit crew.

Seen all the benefit scrounge shite in the press?

I hadn't heard about this until your post, OP.

Thank you for bringing it to people's attention.

I had heard about it, but as pp have said, it’s tucked away. It is strange to not be front page news, but like everything in the media, it’s all controlled and managed in such a way, for reasons I’m not privy to. Even this latest school shooting in the US, I keep reading that it’s the 16th or 18th school shooting in the US since the start of 2018 - but I never heard about the others. At what point are people in the media horrified?! The NAS to be honest I’m not surprised. They have never felt right to me, they go to panel meetings, put their name to campaigns, but certainly in our area they don’t do any practical work with autistic people. No support or help for families or individuals from the NAS, just fundraising, fundraising, and more fundraising. I’ve always felt uneasy about them because of this, the fact that I can’t see them engaging with autistic people. Maybe try do in other areas, but where we are dealing with the NAS is a one way street. You do something for them such as volunteer, donate, fundraise - they have no support options.

Can everyone who is on Facebook share this.
People need to know about this.