Yet Again

Here's another report related to this topic:

www.theguardian.com/.../revealed-companies-running-inadequate-uk-care-homes-make-113m-profit

Thought you might like to see this video by Jane Harris from NAS which is a kind of position statement on ATUs if you have not done so already:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AP0Vt69FtOU&safe=active&feature=youtu.be

It encourages people to sign the petition opposing the detention of autistic people in ATUs, acknowledges that staff often lack appropriate training on autism, and identifies funding as a major part of the problem.

NAS are going to issue a new report on this too.

I follow them on Twitter and they are Tweeting about this regularly.  

Jeez!!!!!!

I could never have imagined anything like this. How long have these institutions been in existence? 

This job suits me in so many ways.  The right number of hours, enough pay, no changing shift patterns.  And they're clearly going to offer support to me.  It's as good as I can expect.  But I just find the work so exhausting and I don't know how much longer I can carry on with it.  I don't want to take more time off work sick because the longer you take, the worse it looks.  And the harder it is to return.  All I can do, though, is go back and see how it goes.  I don't have much choice.  I don't want to end up on sickness benefits again - even though I can manage on them.  It's just the whole system of it. 

As I say... how much, as a society, do we really care?

So true Tom. Years ago I was involved in social care policy meetings. I said there was a simple way to improve standards of care. People looked interested until I said staff pay needed to be increased to recruit and retain the right workers.

I know from experience care work is incredibly complex and demanding. You have to use your self as well as doing physical tasks. That's why it can become so exhausting.

Terms and conditions of employment need to be improved across the care sector. It attracts some people who really do care, and provide excellent support, but they are often not appropriately valued or rewarded, and their wellbeing is put at risk. 

Yes.  Sadly, as with so many issues, we hear that same litany - time after time - that drastic change is needed.  And the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.  There's a kind of 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality behind it.

The care sector in general needs so much attention, so much change.  In my 14 years, I've seen some appalling standards in some places.  Better in charities, not so good in private companies.  It's appallingly paid work, with disproportionate amounts of responsibility, and hugely stressful.  The reason I'm currently off is because of the stress.  I'm going back on Thursday, but am already filled with dread.  And though I hate to say it, it has to be said.  All the while the pay is so bad, it's going to attract people who aren't always best suited to the work.  Standards need to be much more rigorous - such as they are in countries like Canada. 

But we don't produce a profit, do we.  It makes me wonder just how committed we are as a society to humanitarian aims.  How much we really 'care'.  How civilised we really are.

This twitter thread by NAS was posted 19 hours ago. I agree with Richard Mills' reply: 

@Autism
1/4 This must lead to real change for autistic people. No-one should have to face being stuck in inappropriate care, with traumatic and unnecessary seclusion, restraint and over-medication

2/4 But this won't happen unless without changing funding arrangements
[The Health Secretary has ordered the CQC to launch an in-depth review of ATUs,
reports the Mail:
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6…]

3/4 This means finding a new way to put the millions spent on the wrong type of care into the right community services so people can live close to their family and friends

4/4 We wrote to the Health Secretary two weeks ago to encourage him to visit one of these units unannounced. He needs to see first-hand the reality of the care being offered to some of the most vulnerable people in society

@RichardMills18                                                                                                                      
1/1 Sorry but this needs to go much much further. Must now be an aggressive, sustained campaign by the #NAS and other #autism and #LearningDisability organisations to stop these practices. Fudged after #WinterbourneView - no more 'reviews' and 'concordats'

here here

I was discussing it with a colleague.  Care is supposed to be moving away from ATUs, she says.  They're there for people who need more intensive and specialist support - but the idea is a long way from the reality.

Here's a link to some NAS info:

Mental Health Care

In this article it says the Health Secretary [Mr Hancock] has announced there's going to be a thematic review. It also says: 

"The National Autistic Society has urged Mr Hancock to intervene by visiting an ATU without warning."

A really close watch needs to be kept on what actually happens to make sure this issue is treated with sufficient urgency. 

Sunflower said:

There have been repercussions, some of which were extremely nasty and potentially dangerous. I was disappointed in colleagues and managers who would not speak up and even helped to cover up. 

I've found that most NTs have a very flexible moral compass. They can easily become blind if it suits them.

So true - I remember reading research on long term outcomes for whistleblowers years ago - needless to say they usually weren't good.

More recently I heard a radio interview with a care worker who was struggling to get work after drawing attention to unacceptable care standards in her previous work setting. It's very depressing.

I've always spoken up about institutional abuse, criminal activity at work and financial irregularities. Paying a high price in employment terms was better than losing my integrity. 

There have been repercussions, some of which were extremely nasty and potentially dangerous. I was disappointed in colleagues and managers who would not speak up and even helped to cover up. 

Yes, that perception and assumption is really unhelpful. It's a bit the same with getting older - I am sometimes treated as an 'old dear' who can't manage to do things myself. 

the trouble is society on the whole including the NHS sees mental health problems as a problem that can't be fixed so why bother we don't contribute we don't matter physical problems like broken limbs kidney/ liver/heart issues as tangible fixable so therefore worthy it really does depress me .. i have a disabled bus pass due to mobility and obviously mental health issues whenever i get on a bus the driver always takes the ticket from the machine and hands it to me like im incapable of removing it from the machine i have watched they don't do it for general paying passengers just those with disabled or elderly passes i know it sounds petty but it annoys me because its saying im incapable

Another story in todays paper:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6350563/Health-Secretary-orders-probe-autistic-youngsters-locked-NHS-hell-holes-UK.html

This is the same problem in other areas - such as mentioned on JoeChips' 'Addiction' thread.  Private companies take over really effective NHS contracts, strip back the support and resources, and sick people suffer.  The last one I attended went from allowing people to attend every day for as long as they needed to (NHS) to setting a maximum of 12 weeks for 'recovery' - after which time you were signed out of service, and they claimed another mark on their performance targets.  People fall through the cracks that way.  One such attendee was 'successfully treated', and within a couple of months of signing out was living on the streets - leaving a charity to pick up the pieces of his life.

I once blew the whistle on institutional abuse - not in an ATU, but a special needs care home.  It wasn't quite Winterbourne View, but bad enough.  Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse... and, with one staff member in particular, strong suspicions of covert physical abuse.  A client even died in the home, and a verdict of neglect was delivered.  A colleague and I both went to CQC and gave statements about the home generally and this one staff member in particular.  Result?  The home was eventually shut down - but only because the group was bought out by a larger company, who down-sized as soon as they took control.  And the staff member?  He was suspended and the case went to court (which meant he found out who'd blown the whistle on him).  But he got off for lack of hard evidence.  As far as I know, he still works in care.  And he still lives in my town.  I see him around now and then.  Like all bullies (he used to brag about his fights), I think he's probably a coward at heart.  But it's unsettling all the same.  People who 'do the right thing' have a dilemma.  If they say nothing, they're complicit in the abuse.  If they say something, they then live in fear of possible repercussions.

You are right Giddy, the need to derive profit from service provision can seriously undermine the quality of care. A key factor is recruitment and retention of suitable staff. Although ATUs have announced and unannounced inspections this doesn't go anywhere near preventing abuse from occurring. 

Protection from abuse needs to be an intrinsic part of the culture of the establishment. In cases such as Alexis' staff fail to see the person as deserving of dignity and respect. They simply become the 'object' of treatment, coercion and enforced compliance. Family and friends who try to intervene are targeted and disempowered too. 

I am thinking too about members of staff who have tried to report institutional abuse, and been vilified and punished for it. This further undermines any attempt to keep people safe when they are at their most vulnerable. 

Which is essentially what mine was at work the other week.  I wonder, if I'd been working anywhere other than an autism unit, what the outcome might have been.  If it had been a shop or an office, I could have been arrested and Sectioned, even though it wasn't technically a bad meltdown.

sometimes yes it because of a public meltdown