Institutionalised Hate Crime, who's accountable?
Many of us at self direct watched the Panorama programme Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed with horror, it was devastating and left us reeling. Some of us couldn’t bear to watch; one a parent of someone who has Autism knew the effect it would have on her and decided not to be exposed to the hurt it would inevitably result in. Others didn’t want to watch yet another report about care in an institutionalised setting; one of us with over 30 years of experience in the social and health care sector looks back over those years and sometimes wonders if we have learnt anything?
So we still have institutionalised systems of care in the UK, we still have a regulatory body that is unable to detect abuse in institutions, even when this is reported to them directly by a whistle blower. Many are not surprised, how depressing. One of our associates spent some time the morning after the broadcast in a discussion group with a number of disabled people who were surprised at how upset she was. Many of them had experienced similar abuse and said it had been going on for years. One of our associates with a learning disability, Di Lofthouse MBE, has worked with the police to raise the awareness of hate crime against disabled people. What we witnessed on the programme was described as torture; it was and is Institutionalised Hate Crime.
So what do we do about it, who’s accountable? Do we find someone guilty and decide the job is done?
Yes those found guilty of these alleged crimes should pay the highest penalty possible and those responsible for not dealing with the reported abuses should be subjected to the appropriate professional penalties, including dismissal. But these actions alone will not be enough to ensure this does not happen again.
An institutionalised system of care is the problem, power and control over someone’s life is in the wrong place and enough is enough. We need to stop putting people into these institutions; we need to free those people who are locked away in them, so that they are free to live as equal citizens in the community.
At self direct we welcome like minded people and organisations to join us who want to change where the power and control lies. Decision making, power and control over someone’s life, should be with the person who needs support or when appropriate people should be supported with decision making by people around them that love them, know them well and care about them. This is called Self Directed Support and is one of the cornerstones of the Government’s Personalisation agenda.
What we saw on the programme left us shocked and angry, now we all must work together to turn those feelings into action so that, as one of our associates said, “some good must come from this”.
- We need to put a stop to institutionalised systems of care now and accelerate the move to Self Directed Support.
- At self direct we already work alongside organisations that share this vision and want to make it happen as quickly as possible for all people that need support to live their lives with dignity and respect, we need like minded people and organisations to sign up to this vision.
- Regulation and Inspection in its present form is not the answer, which has been made clear.
- Power and control needs to be with people that need support and/or with people that know them well, love them and care about them; their friends and families.
The people who carried out these horrendous acts are responsible for their actions and need to be dealt with by the law.
If we do nothing working together to change the institutionalised system of care that allowed this to happen we are all accountable for the sort of Institutionalised Hate Crime we were shown this week.
On behalf of all at self direct
Don Derrett, Chief Executive, self direct
On 20th June, 2011 Andrew Tyson said...
Hi Don
I agree with everything you say here. Thank you for saying it so clearly.
The response from the authorities has been totally inadequate.
Things really do not have to be like this. It is not inevitable. We know what needs to change - and actually we also know how to change things.. Jim Mansell's two reports, the first nearly twenty years old now spells it out as clearly as anyone could wish. We all need the same things, to have people around us who listen and who care, we need to be valued, we need a proper home, we need the opportunity to make a contribution - and to have our special needs attended to. None of us needs to be in an institution like the one on Panorama. This is not to try to wish away people's disabilities or impairments - but it is to say that disabilities and impairments do not define us. Whether we call this 'self-direction' or 'personalisation' or simply 'compassion' doesn't matter. What does matter is what we do about it.
So, I would like to call on all those friends who have been struggling with these issues in different ways over the years to come together, to put our differences to one side and to unite in our efforts to really make a difference now. Let's help people to escape from the Winterbourne Views of this world, let's help them find homes and support in their own communities - and let's not pretend to ourselves that the problem is one of inadequate regulation or issues with one particular maverick organisation or with a group of 'bad apple' staff who were not properly supervised. The problem is how we think about these things and what we do as a consequence.
With all best wishes,
Andrew Tyson