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

I really like that dream.

All options for me and my ds are too scary to contemplate at the moment. But, he's ten and growing fast....

*2Boys" it is something I want to take forward - not sure how at the moment, but it would be a cheaper option surely than care homes...? David Cameron, if you are reading this thread, pull your fucking finger out and help our dreams come true

We're too busy fighting wars and poking our nose in other people's business. When, if only we tried to sort out what needs overhauling in our own back yard then these kind of "abuse" scandals surely wouldn't keep happening. We are all rightly shocked by Winterbourne but I'm certain that it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Don't get me wrong, I have a direct debit to various charities portfolio to be proud of, but frankly, I'm sick of cutbacks to the vulnerable old and disabled whilst we spend money right left and center on far flung causes.

Just heard on the radio Cameron is pledging £800 million for vaccinations around the world so my question is....where the hell is this money coming from?????
I thought we were so skint that all our benefits needed urgent appraisal and, in many cases, removal!!!
While I'm all for people abroad getting the help they need, when you look closer and see how oppulant many lifestyles are in the same countries and how well supplied the armies are it makes me wonder...
Clearly another blooody exercise is spin; oh look at us, aren't we good, saving all these lives abroad. Well yeah mate but how about saving some in your own bloody country first? Like those who cannot get the operations their kids need or the drugs for their cancers, or the support for our carers and disabled and elderly...
Pah, it's all rollocks innit!

BakeliteBelle- you need a social worker with imagination and prepared to work for you and your son and really 'think outside the box' [slapping myself for using such a naff term!].

Wendi and unpaid - you expecting some commonsense here from the gov?
No - they will spout on about it being a separate issue and not even entertain your thinking.

It shouldn't be either or but is it at the moment? How do things get prioritised re funding? [Dumb question I'm sure].

Trouble is Justabout, they don't have a conscience unless it can be witnessed by everyone. They wouldn't do anything that wasn't 'popular' just because it was the right thing to do. It is so far from them being altruistic it beggers belief.
And all the time they're being 'popular' they're depriving others of many things, not just education. They're depriving us all of hope for one thing; hope for our disabled childrens futures, hope for our own...
Of course our relative 'poverty' is nothing in comparison with the abject poverty of many abroad BUT as I said you will also find obscene amounts of wealth in the same countries. Why can they not give some of their wealth to those poorer in their own community/society to provide the basics of life?
They won't all the time other countries are doing it for 'em!
And then perhaps we will have more money here to help those who really need it too!
I don't think one should suffer at the expense of another, but that is what is happening.

"..they don't have a conscience unless it can be witnessed by everyone"..
I have a horrible feeling you have made a good and very sad point unpaid.

I agree with davros too.

Those in Winterbourne View Hospital are part of our 'relatively rich' society.
Fat lot of good it has done them.

I hear you justabout..... and I can see your viewpoint. And were we not facing cutbacks and declining services here, then I agree that we as a civilised and "wealthy" nation ought to assist others. However, my ds has waited 2 years to get a service which has now been in place since April this year. It has made a big difference to his life. Funding ceases in August, this year. I'm the one who has to tell him, he can't have "that" anymore. So after waiting for 2 years and form filling, and seeing my MP and getting the help he will have had 4 months worth of "service". Great.

I'm happy for people living in dire poverty in the third world to be given help. Can you imagine having a severely disabled child in some countries? When you know how bad it is here, it doesn't bear thinking about how shit it must be there. That's if the money gets to them of course.....

What I am not happy about is the distribution of wealth and services within this country and the selling off of 'care' to the sort of companies who run torture chambers like Winterbourne View. Elderly care has been sold off for years and no fucker sees what goes on behind closed doors, to our old people....

Now it is happening to people with learning disabilities because this Government and the last, are hell bent on selling off care to profiteering, greedy bastards who don't know the meaning of the word care.

To echo what Wendi says above, yes we are relatively speaking a rich nation when compared to some who are starved of the basics of life. However if this is the case why are so many vulnerable people in this country suffering when they live in a relatively rich country?
And there is enough wealth in other parts of the poverty stricken countries to wipe out poverty. If some are not giving when they can easily afford to then they should be made to give, simple as that.
The trouble is in this country the money goes to the wrong people (I don't mean starving nations particularly) but money goes to money...look at the bankers for starters- they too should be made to give their over-inflated bonuses to better causes, the same as the princes and Kings of the other nations should be made to with their poorer members.
I always liked the Swedish model of welfare (although i Understand even they are struggling right now with the recession); those who have more, give more and everyone benefits from better services.
All the time we live in a residual welfare state many of us will continue to be p*ssed off when we read how much is being given to other countries (who are quite capable if not willing, to sort out their own mess)

I cannot afford to use my heating (bulk gas, about 4 x more expensive than mains) and my electricity bill in in arrears although i am paying £97 per month. My house is full of damp which is so bad for my boys chests with their constant ENT infections. Sometimes we go in the garden to warm up!
The former head of M&S (forgot his name) said something like 'while the rich continue to buy diamonds, the poor are getting poorer'. This is why I and many others get so angry when we hear that actually we do have 800million to spare as it happens!
I am waiting to hear if I am accepted onto a PGCE course to start Sept. My biggest problem is finding care for the boys who cannot be left alone. My Husband works FT shifts and is gone from the house for around 15 hrs per day so no joy there. All I hear from SS, who I am battling with right now, is we haven't got the money/resources to help, so therefore I won't be able to do the PGCE. Why not use some of this 'spare' 800 mill to go towards a bit of suitable provision to enable me to complete the course, become a lecturer and pay taxes to help others! Or to facilitate Wendi's son to continue his role to enable him to feel happy and valued? Or any one of the other million similar situations? Makes sense to me
Perhaps my view is too simplistic, but sometimes the most difficult problems require the simplest solution.

unpa1dcar3r I think the trouble is that people in our situation are entirely invisible. The general public simply don't realise that children and adults with disabilities suffer so much. Some children and adults with disabilities are invisible even to those within the disabled world (e.g., those with severe autism), because they are too severe to be included in many aspects of mainstream life. Out of sight, out of mind.

A few Riding for the Disabled lessons and a pat on the head at bravery awards ceremonies, and the public think it's all hunky dory with us. They simply have no idea of the sacrifices some parents have to make, and the unbelievably restricted lives some families have.

I was, and remain, astounded, appalled and continually outraged that my life as a parent-carer of a very severely disabled child - before I got a good respite package - has been a prison sentence: Existing, not actually living. Others continue to barely exist. I cry for the next generation in my situation

Bakelite I think you've hit the nail on the head there!
What astounds me is when someone chooses to work for disabled, people are amazed at their sacrifice. Now don't get me wrong, I know there are some fabulous people out there who do a wonderful job. My own daughter and son in law for example, plus some of the support workers my boys have had over the years.
BUT the people who actually do it 24/7/52 (Us in other words)...'well, they're your children so you're only being a parent'...people do not understand the everyday things we have to do, the little nittypicky things we have to think of, so much so that i can't even think of anything cos there are so many things lol.
And SS ask you to keep diaries of behaviour; I've been given an hourly one. Yep literally I am supposed to write down every hr (24 hrs) what happens, one each for the boys...
Of course I can't write it all down as it happens cos while I'm doing that, younger DS will be trying to cook cheese in the toaster or older DS will be flooding the bathroom...O.K. so I'm supposed to sit and write it all down I assume once they're in bed, and of course by then my brain is so bloody mashed I can't even concentrate on my own name let alone remember half the things they (or I) have done! But this is to clarify what help I need. It isn't good enough for me to say well I need this, this and this help.
I think the idea is to make me give up!!! So they can save money cos obviously we are so skint in this country...which leads me back (in a very long winded way haha) to my first point of sorting out our own countries frigging mess before we try to clean up someone elses!

we have been asked to financially contribute towards the running costs of my childs special school due to a cut in central government funding, lea funding and pupils having their 1-2-1 support cut. I doubt we are alone. We should be up in arms about this but of course we are all too bloody busy with our caring duties to have the time :( Imo David Cameron needs to be taken to account about this. He had a severely disabled child himself for heavens sake, surely he knows how vulnerable these children are? I imagine this is just the tip of the iceburg aswell. i only know with regards to my own situation, i am sure lots of vulnerable people in this country are affected and that is what is so sad about all of this.

Roger, Cameron aint got a bloody clue mate. His child was raised and cared for by 2 nannies while he went happily off to work each day. He had the money to pay them so it wouldn't impact on his life if he had've had to pay for schooling for the boy.
I'd like to leave him with my 2 for a few weeks (not that he'd last that long), give him the same money I get (C/A £55 pw or £27.50 per child) and see what he does. Well it wouldn't happen would it, just fair words and promises of reform and then back to his nice cosy little rich life!
I am astounded actually that you've been asked to pay towards your childs education...I mean if your child was non disabled and you chose to send him to fee paying school that is your choice but getting a basic education? Who else pays towards that I wonder?

Roger Oh my God....Please take that to the local press and even the national press. I just can't believe what you have just written.

Unpa1d I doubt the social workers are asking you to do ridiculous paperwork so you will give up. More likely because they truly have NO IDEA or comprehension of the stress of constant caring. If they had a clue they would realise how ridiculous it is to do hourly reports. Of course they should LISTEN and not make you [and others] jump through hoops for the help you need.
RogerMelly a few years back I supported someone who loved his day centre. It did actually survive and is still up and running but there was a lot of 'talk' about a 'seamless service' ie going out from home. Day centres [however good at meeting individual needs] were seen as universally a bad idea and not idealogically sound. I am sure there are poor day centres for adults- but this was not one of them. My God they had to fight to keep their funding.
Guess what I am trying to say is that good services - even if not fitting a political ideal- should be judged on whether they work for the people who use them. Similarly poor services should be judged under the same criteria.

BTW, I don't blame anyone in our position from being angered that the Government has extended its foreign aid budget while pulling the plug on us. That is entirely understandable. I think though, that there are other areas that could fund us; for instance, we shouldn't be paying for a bunch of rich bankers whose continuing outrageous wealth is now state funded.

The issues were more complex aswell and included things like the school has become fully funded, which meant an additional finance person had to be employed. A transitions co-ordinator was employed following the cessation of the connexions service by the local authority plus services for payroll and HR provided by the local authority have become much more expensive.

I hope the governers do go to press about it. It's a disgrace. We can't afford to contribute either. My husband earns just over the tax threshold which means I am even going to lose my child benefit. Again, no-one seems to have even questioned in reference to carers of severely disabled children having their CB cut. I don't think anyone even cares. We are also currently receiving zero hours of respite aswell despite a sld, autism, chronic epilepsy, cp diagnosis

My childs special school provides an outstanding level of care imo, if that isn't clear.

I am not very up on support for children. I do know that when I stopped working that adults were starting to be charged for their care/ day time activities out of their benefits.
But a child's school? Good luck with fighting that one Roger. You shouldn't have to fight though. Surely school should be free for all children?