With huge thanks to Sam Sly for allowing us to reproduce these really helpful documents on the blog: Life Plan & Support Plan Days What needs to be done? A Life Plan and Support Plan will e…
Source: Planning To Leave an ATU
Monthly Archives: April 2016
The Iron Gate
Here’s Stephen Andrade’s story, written by his mother, Leo. Just before he was 16, Stephen went to a residential school in Norfolk. Two years. It did not work as it did not have the ser…
Source: The Iron Gate
“Natural Causes”
Thomas Rawnsley died on the 4th February 2015. He was 20 years old. Thomas had a diagnosis of downs syndrome and autism. He was just 4ft 10″ in height. Thomas had been in three different ATUs…
Source: “Natural Causes”
Life In A Conservatory
Jack was born with ATRX syndrome, which on its own has its difficulties. He attended a special school and had no issues there at all until it was time to leave at 16.
Jack’s anxieties were heightened more and more on the transition from school to college. He only visited the college once and on starting there, he found things very difficult. By this time he was known to CLDT team and was put on antipsychotic drugs.
Jack managed 18 months of college before they eventually excluded him because they could no longer support him. The next 18 months support came under the social care umbrella where they threw all kinds of support charities at him. It was inconsistent, which is the worst type of support when you have needs like Jack’s.
He hated it and his difficulties got worse to the point where he would go into town alone (as he…
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“Mum. I Can’t Get The Words Out”
The first post tells the story of Eden Norris. We chose this story to begin the seven days of action because Eden has been in ATUs for the last seven years of his life. This is way beyond the national average for time spent in ATUs.
Eden is 24. He has a moderate learning disability and autism.
Eden has been in 2 units. Eden was admitted to the first unit aged 17 and remained there for 5 years and 4 months. It was an adult medium forensic unit – which the family didn’t realise until after he had gone there. He had no criminal history. His parents agreed to him going there for an assessment as things had reached crisis point due to lack of the right support. Though Eden was admitted as a voluntary patient he was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act (section 37) following staff pressing charges…
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Act against the 21st Century institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities
Support the #7Daysofaction on twitter – Monday 18th April 2016
by Dan Goodley
In 1993 I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a psychology degree. My Mum and Dad were very proud. I was … unsettled. Not simply by the prospect of post-student life but by the discipline of psychology. One of the things I learnt on graduating was this: there were a helluva lot of psychological ideas that viewed disabled people as nothing more than pathological conditions. These ideas seemed to go against my understanding of disability that I had learnt from families and friends. Disability was, if anything, a complex phenomenon where people with physical, sensory and cognitive impairments were excluded from mainstream life. I did not get these words from thin air: in 1992 I had learnt about the social model of disability. This seemed more in line with my personal experiences of disability (and…
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Press Release
Press Release from 7 Days of Action Campaign Monday 18th April 2016 sees the launch of the 7 Days of Action Campaign. The campaign is launched by the mothers and family members of people wit…
Source: Press Release
Just imagine
Just imagine. Nearly three years after LB died. After two ‘independent’ reviews by Verita were published. After the police closed their investigation into LB’s death because they couldn’t find any evidence that linked the Sloven senior team to the crap provision at STATT. After a two week inquest…
Just imagine you get sent a previously unseen document, anonymously, via My Life My Choice. A document which shows that Sloven knew that the provision on the Slade House site was crap in August 2012. Nearly three months before they took over the Ridgeway provision.
A Quality and Safety Review, conducted as part of the Governance Work Stream. That details lack of clarity in care plans, risk assessments not updated or appropriate, issues with RiO, lack of assessment from the wider team, dirt, lack of maintenance, crap about Mental Capacity stuff, and so on. And so on.
August 2012.
So everyone knew…
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He Wouldn’t End Up In One of Those Places … Would He?
It’s been great how many people have stepped up & want to contribute to 7 Days of Action. Here’s a piece from Katherine Runswick-Cole, Senior Research Fellow in Disability Studies a…
Source: He Wouldn’t End Up In One of Those Places … Would He?
