Horrible Abuse

I saw this on TV the other night. An undercover reporter had been sent to a private home which 'looked after' people with learning difficulties, autism and challenging behaviour. I suspect that what was shown was probably typical, rather than an exception. Apart from the terrible suffering of the victims, it must be appalling for the relatives to see their children tortured in this way. It reminded me of Abu Ghraib.

I remember in the mid 1960's a young friend obtained a job in a hospital for 'mental handicap'. She reported that the nurses taunted the patients, stole their money, promised them cigarettes for performing a task, then withheld the cigarettes. Apparently they dressed old ladies in mini-kilts and other clothes designed to make them look ridiculous, all for the amusement of the staff. My friend reported the abuse, all to no effect, and left immediately, despite the lack of jobs in the north-east at the time.

At the Bristol institution shown on TV, councils are apparently paying over £3,000 per week for the 'care ' of these people. At half of this rate , I imagine that plenty of people with a spare room or two would be happy to help, and engage closely overseen and well paid staff to do this job after undertaking thorough training. In fact the patients' families who had previously understandably failed to deal with challenging behaviour could be given much more help and provided with day staff. Oh well.