One of the topics we learned about was deinstitutionalisation. The closing down of mental institutions that supposedly cared for people with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, ABI (acquired brain injury) etc.
The community in general felt it was better to have people with disabilities put into institutions so that they can be taken care of and put out of harms way. But whose harm were they thinking of. They weren't thinking about a persons dignity to be treated like a human being. They were thinking about the community in general of so called normal people. But what exactly is normal?
Deinstitutionalisation came about as a result of people speaking (advocacy) up, out, for and on behalf of people with disabilities. This brought an end of isolating people with disabilities from the community.
Today disability support workers provide a person centred approach in helping an individual with a disability learn:
- Life skills cooking, house cleaning, health and hygiene
- how to use public transport
- how to do shopping
- how to manage finances
- how to be a part of (inclusion) and contribute to the community
- and more...
In our last class we were shown videos of people with disabilities who were abused by untrained support workers. It was very, very shocking to see this. I was mortified, disgusted and horrified that this abuse happened now in 2011.
The reason I'm bringing this to your attention is so you can consider the vulnerability of people with disabilities and how we need to make sure they are protected from abuse.
Abuse can be defined as:
- physical
- psychological
- sexual
- financial
- emotional
- neglect
- social
Please be warned these videos contain graphic material and can be very distressing.
As you watch these videos please think how you would feel if someone in your family was being treated like this?
What upset me most of all, was seeing the reaction of the parents as they watched the video showing how their children were being abused.
- By demanding that disability support workers must be trained and accredited before being employed by service providers. This will ensure that people with disabilities:
- are safe and protected from abuse
- their human rights are respected
- they are treated with the same dignity that everybody expects
- they can enjoy a good quality of life
References
Abuse at leading care home leads to police inspections of private hospitals
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/31/abuse-at-leading-care-home
Winterbourne View Panorama 'abuse' hospital to close
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-13848877
It is recognised across the developed world that the incidents of abuse of people who have a disability is significantly higher than other groups in our societies (Susan haze http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/previous%20series/proceedings/1-27/~/media/publications/proceedings/20/hayes.ashx ). As you would have discussed in your classes it seems abuse and power seem to be innately linked concepts. The ways in which we continue to develop and provide disability services continue to place the person who receives the service in a position of powerlessness. The service has the money, the service makes the rules, and the service has control of the processes for communication, information and expression. We create “helping systems” based on an unequal distribution of power which could be seen as a blueprint for dis-empowerment. Our systems reinforce and encourage service providers to accept the notion that service users are powerless victims.
ReplyDeleteAnother recent example of the extremes that can occur when you view your services users as being powerless can be seen in the Texas institution that had a minor media flare up a few years ago. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101937985
Of course this dose not have to be the way of things. The films you have here point out that it just takes one person within the power structures of service providers to say no, for the hegemony of abuse and neglect to be challenged and weakened.
As a side note its worth noting that even through people who have a disability have a significantly higher risk of being abused and assaulted than other groups in our societies and yet they are over represented in our criminal justice systems.
Law reform Commission http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/R80CHP2
Thank you Anonymous, this is a great comment and your response is well versed. My class has been taught that disability support workers can be advocates for their clients, protecting their human rights and educating the client in their rights so they can make informed decisions and know what is right and wrong. Also in Australia we have the Disability Standards that all service providers and support workers must comply to. When it comes to abuse of clients, criminal charges can be laid against the abusers. So it is taken very seriously in Australia, its states and territories.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a frightening eye opener after viewing the 4 videos and reading Daryl Williams writings on this barbaric abuse of people who
ReplyDeletehave varying disabilities. How these support workers were employed in the beginning is just beyond belief. This is not old news and thus it was essential to have a person filming the blatant atrocities of the vigourous actions of physical, verbal, and psychological behaviours by the support workers. They had no right whatsoever to act in their most aggressive assaulting,actions in which one of the young women was told to go ahead and to jump out of a window. Extreme screening and monitoring any person must be implicated to discover more thoroughly about a persons past history. As Daryl Williams stated, it was just so saddening for the parents to observe what had been done to each of his/her son or daughter at the Winterbourne View Panoramic Hospital in
Bristol, UK who were unaware of the inhumane treatment of their sibling patients. It is paramount a whole revamp of major changes, evaluations, implementations must be attended to regarding these outrageous people
who already have caused detrimental acts towards people with a disability. To end on a hopeful note these patients must be accepted,
shown compassion, respect and dignity. In conclusion, all people have rights to live a happy nurturing existence and a supportive helpful direction of meaning and purpose. It is the right for all people to live a life of immeasurable quality daily.
Stephen Metcalf
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