Panorama - Learning Disability Hospital abuse

[BakeliteBelle]

I know it is on AIBU, but why no debate on here? Did anyone watch it?

I forced myself to watch it because one of the factors in abuse of people with learning disabilities is the fact that good people who care, stand by and do nothing because they can't bear to believe it is possible.

I cried watching it and feel so utterly distressed that as my DS reaches 18, I won't be able to care for him at home because he is too challenging, but I can't bear the thought of what might happen to him away from us...

Too, too distressing. I want those bastards to be done for torture and find out what it is to be hurt and bullied and stamped on themselves.

What the fuck are LA's funding learning disability hospitals for anyway? They were meant to have closed years ago - why on earth are private companies receiving funding to open new hospitals? It beggars belief.

I won't sleep tonight

Yes I completely agree, it was awful when she called for her mum. I thought it was also pretty awful when her mum stated that she had tried to tell her that she was being harmed but that she (mum) said she wasn't because that wouldn't happen. I don't think I could cope with the guilt if I had placed my disabled children somewhere and then found that this had happenned. I know that lots of places are not like this hospital but how do parents get to know when they are? I am not blaming the mum at all, she did not inflict the abuse, I am simply recognising how awful she must feel.

Stickyfloor I had no idea, I really didnt.

And im fairly ashamed to admit that until my DS arrived three years ago these issues didnt really hurt my heart as much as they do now. DS was sent to humble me and make me a better person. Just another reminder of how lucky I am to have him.

I know two people who work in adult care homes for autistic people in Bristol. I wouldnt want to generalise based on two people but they only seem to know what their adults with autism DO rather than WHY they do them.

This country needs to do something. Now.

Stickyfloor - it makes me sick too, how can putting people away from communities "out of sight" and away from priotective factors of a community be any better than the institutions that have been closed down?

my friend told me about this and said she was sat in tears, i have not watched it but on just what my friend says they want locking up or to be given 15 mins with the parents of them poor kids x

I think progs like last night are so important because otherwise we just would not believe some of the things that still go on. We have come on a long way over the last 20 years, it's true, but there is such a long way to go and there are still many things wrong in the way we treat people with SN.

Even the experts and carers themselves are often found to be lacking whether because they are pure evil bastards in it for the money, or because they lack the training / resources / support to do the job properly. Whatever the reason it is not good enough but it happens a lot, and not enough people know about it.

I am absolutely appauled at the abuse shown. Am now so scared regarding our beautiful disabled children's care after we have gone. No wonder many of our friends want to outlive their children!

I watched and cried. Absolutely disgusted and can't believe that despite the nurse complaining to officials they didnt bloody act on it.

My heart went out to the patients and their families. 13 members of staff, 13 bullying wankers, vile. I just couldn't believe what I saw. Makes you think that is one hospital are there others like it?

DS is 3 and has autism. I dont know what the future holds for him but it worries me all the more. I just want him with me forever if he can't be independent. Its not a million miles away from me, Brisol which made it even closer to home as is a city we often visit.

Hope they throw the lot in jail, but I doubt it.

This was the worst part for me.
'CQC chairman Dame Jo Williams admitted the failure to follow up the reports of a whistleblower - a senior nurse at the home - had been an "unforgivable error of judgement".

She said the CQC was conducting a "root-and-branch review" to find out why that had happened.

Dame Jo, who said she had no plans to resign, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "I am absolutely determined that we must do better."

She said the whistleblower had apparently contacted the CQC two or three times: "Once should have been enough. We have to listen to the people who are brave enough to raise their concerns."

Terry Bryan, a good man in a shitty situation. He did something, they ignored him, he kept trying and then he went to the media. Because he couldn't bear for nothing to be done. The reporter who had to stand and bear witness to gather evidence instead of intervening and weakening the evidence. That must have given him nightmares, but he did it.

The shameful thing is that the CQC is likely to fudge and woffle their way out of any responsibility for anything. The programme made me incandescent, and I watched it all with rage in my heart. So let's try and make sure that it doesn't become yesterday's news and forgotten.

I have read in community care today that :-

"Several learning disability hospitals are to face unannounced inspections after abuse was uncovered at one unit by BBC's Panorama programme.

The Care Quality Commission said care services minister Paul Burstow had accepted a proposal from the regulator for a "programme of risk-based and random unannounced inspections of a sample of the 150 hospitals providing care for people with learning disabilities"."

So maybe Panarama's programme will help to safeguard these vulnerable adults..........although clearly the CQC failed to.

I didn't see it last night, had an amazing day with DS then saw it on the local news this evening. It changed everything. Can't believe this happens, and then finding it's here under your nose just a few miles away. I felt powerless. Those poor families, the abuse and then watching the parents who thought they were doing right by their children crying, the guilt they must feel even though they were nothing but normal trusting human beings.

I was sickened, couldn't stop crying and almost screaming to DH about what will happen to DS when he grows up.

ive added nas link to facebook

I didnt see it but read a report on it this morning it is truly dreadful stuff and god how i fear for my little boys future if this is all the government are able to offer ds has autism.

Surely society shouldnt allow this type of abuse to happen but unfortunately we live in a capitalist society profit before care

Watched it all and my blood ran cold. Dd is 9...

Two thoughts kept coming to mind...

1. Why isn't there any cctv in these places in the public areas? Ds's school has cctv in public areas. and when dd was in nursery, I had a parent login to see the web cam output at any time (real time). again public areas only.
2. £3500 for 1 week!!!!! A quarter of that would hire the most fabulous person to come and care in the home fulltime!

I just watched this, and it left me in tears. But i felt driven to watch it, as if i needed to see it, to bear witness to it.

Thing is, if the carers know how to fake reports and lie so well to cover their arses that only secret film footage can bust them, then is there any hope, ever, that our kids will be looked after (if needed) properly???

Words failed me all together. I was really shocked that those not actually physically caught abusing were not named and shamed. They were protected. IMO those who watched and did nothing are as shamefuly as guilty as those doing the torturing!!!

And professioanls question us, as parents, as to why we have trust issues??

SweetGrapes I so agree about the need for CCTV. As far as I know, they don't have CCTV to protect people's 'privacy'. Something tells me that protecting privacy is less important than protecting safety and dignity and lives.

Why the fuck aren't heads rolling at the CQC? 'Dame Jo Williams has no plans to resign' - shameless bastard

Trouble is, when you put CCTV in the public areas, the abusive people move the action to the bits with no CCTV in them - the bedrooms, the showers etc, and then you're maybe into some really serious abusive stuff.

What's needed is respect for the residents. If no-one believes us when we say we're scared of a situation or a person ('because what would we know - we're autistic/have a learning disability - must be imagining it or exaggerating it'" etc), and if no-one supports us trying to seek safety or justice 'because we aren't reliable witnesses anyway' (untrue) then abusive people can do whatever they like, whenever they like unless there's a TV crew present.

The times I've gone for help over the years and been told I'm just imagining it/I should just grow a thicker skin/nothing to do with that person etc..... I endured literally years of mockery and violence.

Society too often sees vulnerable adults as a laugh or a burden or a nuisance, or as 'nothing to do with me' not as people worthy of love and care.

I agree that those that stood by and watched it occurring were just as guilty as those who were abusing the patients - after all, don't they have a duty of care? Aren't they obligated to step in and stop the abuse? Or if they are afraid to intervene for some reason, then it should be reported every single time it occurs... in writing and verbally. Immediately.

But it's true also that abusers just sneakier when there is cctv and move to non-monitored areas. cctv doesn't stop abuse, it only relocates it.

Why not have CCTV in bedrooms and bathrooms and a strict monitoring system of CCTV footage? Some nurseries have it. It is some security, surely?

Good training, care qualifications, improved wage structure and recruitment would also be essential.

I am assuming those trained nurses will be struck off the nursing register...

I couldn't watch either. But I have signed the petition.

I wasn't going to post anything because it all feels a bit too raw at the moment due to concerns about an older family member's future and I felt discussing it might make me feel worse rather than better. But then I saw that there was concern at lack of posts and I wanted to say that maybe there has not been much discussion on here because people care too much and it hurts to think about it, not because they don't care at all.

I wasn't going to read this thread either. I'm glad I did though, because it's become obvious to me that not thinking about it isn't going to help those who can't stand up for themselves, so I'm not going to hide my head in the sand any more. So, how can we help? Any ideas?

News article about it

The hospital's owners, Castlebeck, have apologised and suspended 13 employees.

Avon and Somerset police confirmed three men - aged 42, 30 and 25 - and a 24-year-old woman were arrested as part of their investigation into the hospital.

For adults, having CCTV in your bedroom etc is hugely embarassing and a big breach of people's right to privacy - and a whole new way to offer up footage to abusive people to watch us get changed or showered or whatever. No thanks.

amber the problem is that it was only when these people were filmed that the abuse was uncovered. CCTV could only be ok if it was heavily monitored under strict controls, i.e., only certain personnel were allowed to watch it. After all, care workers have access to people's bodies during intimate care.

My son can't speak up for himself at all, he can't cry for help, he can't go on a forum like you can and say he's being hurt, he can't go to the police, he can't tell his parents he is frightened. How on earth can I protect him?

Bakelitebelle, for me, protection has to come from really responsible employment procedures (who is this person - what are their references, how much training do they have, are we paying them a wage that respects those skills, etc). And from really responsible onsite training (how do we promote respect and caring? How do we use the best practice of the industry to allow people to have a calm and safe environment and really good training?). And from excellence in supervision - with real accountability, regular checks, irregular checks, people who can ask all the residents what's happening (and if not in words, in careful assessment using pictures, signs, whatever works).

And all of this needs to be open, honest and accountable. There is a place for CCTV, but ultimately the stat is that 1 in 10 workers in any 'vulnerable person' setting is there to be a predator, and predators are the cleverest people on this earth. There is no ultimate way to protect people either in the home or in society, but all we can do is respect them enough to listen, train, care, love, and try. I think all of those things were missing in that care home - the Directors seem to have been obsessed with getting £17 million profit a year, not caring for their clients. Can we imagine that sum??! Absolutely incredible. So glad the Government is looking at the whole 'privatisation' of this industry.

Me, I'd still not want CCTV watching me in the showers or in the privacy of my own bed. No way. That's a personal view I know, but it would be a continual embarassment and invasion for me that would feel as bad as someone standing there just watching. What of issues of sexual expression etc? Adults have that right to a private life, even with disabilities.

i was told not to watch it by a friend who knows my child has respite and we find it hard for our child to go anyway but really do need a rest every now & again but it was shown on the news & we were so upset i couldnt sleep last night. i hope these people get the same treatment if jailed