Still a bit baffled by the Tory template [copy below] being pinged out by MPs in response to requests from constituents to support the #LBBill. Some people see this as a sign that the campaign is weighty and demands a response. That it’s referencing the Green Paper, keeping it out there. Yep, I can see that. I also find it pretty offensive to see cut and paste jobbies stating how “deeply saddened” MPs are by LB’s death.
“No you ain’t”, I want to snarl at them. “If you were you wouldn’t blooming well template it…”
Maybe there are bereavement templates in Tory HQ. Who knows. Maybe there’s a whole filing cabinet of templates. One for every occasion. Bit like LB used to say he had a girlfriend for every occasion; camping and funerals.
I’m interested in who produced the template and on whose say. It’s a masterpiece in saying nothing, while saying so much.
I was greatly saddened to learn about the case of Connor Sparrowhawk. I understand that past-mortem findings have shown that that he died as a result of drowning, likely to have been caused by an epileptic seizure.I am deeply sorry that Connor died whilst in the care of Southern Health NHS Trust who I understand have acknowledged that they failed to undertake the necessary actions required to keep him safe. I think it is quite right that the hospital has now apologised unreservedly to Connor’s family.
I read the proposed Private Member Bill with great interest. I think it is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about how we best improve care for people with learning disabilities. You may be interested to know that during the last Parliament, the Department of Health held a consultation called ‘No voice unheard, no right ignored’ which looked into precisely this issue. In particular it included a section called ‘My right to be independent, to be part of a community and to live in a home I have chosen’.
I hope this is an area that the newly elected Government will choose to examine carefully before deciding how best to support and care for patients.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
mydaftlife 
Sara these template letters are insulting. In truth these MP’s are all toeing the party line. None of them are competent enough to have a view of there own. What a load of shallow sheep.
My cynical mind believes that there is a lot of money to be had by keeping the status quo as far as containing people in expensive care facilities. Perhaps the people making the dough are also party donors or maybe MP’s have links to these organisations that profit from keeping people in ATUs. Well, it makes you wonder! Maybe not though, Members of Parliament would sink so low would they?
This kind of stuff is bad enough when it’s your child’s education that they’ve just trashed, but when your child has died, it’s cruel, and they would deny that this is the case, but it is and they truly don’t care – they are simply bureaucratic sociopaths – psychopaths, even. You might find my articles interesting, as they look at the situation in Scotland and it may be even worse than that in England – because they don’t bother to gather data. There is no publication of some of the basic measures of compliance with human rights, such as numbers of deaths in the mental health system, or even collation of numbers of assaults, etc. We’re the only group campaigning for changes in Scotland that are similar to the LB Bill – 13 years after it was acknowledged that it might be a good idea to take people with Learning Disabilities and autism out of the provisions of the Mental Health Act, there is now a possibility of Review, because our campaigning has hit home. We’re also pushing amendments on use of psychotropics and on statistics.
Read (almost) all about it!
http://newsnet.scot/2015/06/autism-and-the-madness-of-the-mental-health-act/
http://newsnet.scot/2015/06/we-should-face-up-to-the-madness-of-the-scottish-mental-health-system/
I know that you have asked about whether or not there is a campaign like the LB Bill going in Scotland – it’s us!
Autistic, LD, are not in MHA, unless they are a serious danger to themselves or others.
NHS, IN ANY EVENT, is acting illegally, in sectioning them, and even more illegally, in doing so interminably, as they have done as treatment, all for private profit, as the hospitals they are detained in, are privatised.
All that needs to be done is enforce our present MHA law.
The real problem is the MCA, which can capture anyone read my blog. regardless of if they are a danger to themselves or others.
It is far more vague and draconian, as no reviews and for life.
And MCA, can, illegally, make anyone targeted, incapable, and remove all their decisions for life and encage and enforce any treatment medication.
There is no point in moving all these people out of NHS, and MHA illegally enforced, to similar encagement and abuse under the far more draconian MCA, for the same profit ,enforced by COP and LA.
Mmm – that would be why one of my members just got threatened with her son being `sectioned` for taking off a pair of shorts that had got ripped in hot weather (he had underpants on underneath). His unacceptable behaviour was cited as the reason for telling his mother that she had to give him drugs that she knows he cannot tolerate, just to please a shrink.
If you read my blog post ‘my complaints.
We eventually got the head of social services adult support provision, in our kitchen, on the end of stage 1 formal complaint, I’d lodged over the agency provision and education, we never received any, even perfunctory attention to our complaints, the lady, even telling us, she had ‘chosen not to look at the record’ before the visit, and knew nothing of our complaints, which had been lodged over 6 months before, and already WE had, had social worker one hour, and her boss, one hour in kitchen ,again doing nothing.
This lady saw my daughter naked on her way to her bath, she was 20 minutes early, we live in a dormer bungalow, her bedroom next to bathroom, and the only letters, meetings, that then ensued, was concern about the fact, she was naked in front of a stranger, her dignity was not protected, and it was a serious safeguarding issue.
Two months later, the complaints, now just about to reach stage2 independent investigator, were halted by court proceeding , we got a letter saying none could now proceed,
There is no accountability, and made up concerns, but if you have absolute power, you can do or say anything, which is desperately dangerous to our children, who are clearly, the least of their concerns.
Thanks for the links Fiona, it’s great to hear you’re already on the job and getting somewhere. 🙂
Thanks for your reply, Sara. Any possibility of giving my articles some promotion on the LB Bill webpages, given that almost half of our SNP MPs support the LB Bill, but this will have zero impact in Scotland?
Learning disabled are a goldmine, as is social care.
All of welfare, is now effectively privatised.
All this is our public money , our welfare and our children, and parents.
And welfare effectively, is now privatised encagement, making an average of 3,500 per week for our old, mentally disordered and vulnerable.
All unaccountable for services, no one can complain of, given by oppressed, zero hour itinerant workers.
Social workers are now enforcers into such encagement under the MCA via COP, or foster and adoption via care courts.
The assisted suicide bill, will soon be passed, and this will probably, allow the state, to legally kill all the ‘incapable’ under the MCA, ie most autistic , if they feel their quality of life is so poor, had they been capable, they would have chosen to end their life.
That would cover up a lot of state abuse, and, affect of MCA enforced, secret drug trails etc.
900 AUTISTICS lie in St Andrews, still deracinated from their families by the courts, only discovered last year by NHS England, on an audit as know one could find out, which LA had to be billed for their 4,500 per week illegal ‘treatment’.
No one will know, when or if they die.
And as incapable under MCA regs, even their body parts can be used.
Yes, I think you’re right about the `cash-cow` side of things – which is itself used as eugenics by the back door. The fact that they don’t compile or publish even basic measures of human rights compliance is testament either to this, or to a very deep bigotry, ignorance and total absence of compassion.
What is this St. Andrews you talk of? There are so many, apart from the lovely Scottish seaside town and its ancient university.
the template, just nasty, here’s hoping piddle is raining down on my MP from the gents as per the news. The past.
About 10 years ago I was at the funeral of Louise, a young woman with learning disabilities and mental health problems who took her own life in prison. There were 40+ people there, almost every one a rep from some institution or service connected to Louise. I could not help thinking that getting any two of those in a room together for an hour when she was alive would have been hard, yet they all had time to be there in death because politics.
It’s all templates and it’s all show. Human beings do not come into that anywhere.
How many in enforced, away from family ‘independent’ living, take their own life, if they are capable, and , if not, are forced to continue in anguished, drugged hell ?
I have heard of a suicide of a learning disabled girl, who was refused a home stay last year.
The MCA, via COP, puts all those deemed incapable, if, deemed, in their ‘best interests’, in prison for life, via independent 24/7 supervised,away from family living,even though, they have committed no crime.
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emailed former conservative MP Ann Noreen Widdecombe today at Widyworld. She has a press column and she was able to recognize ” something of the night ” about a colleague, perhaps she can identify someone presently in Westminster who is not a feckless wonder and will champion equality and independence for all disabled people, asked her to give it some thought. Asked whether she is prepared to comment on the template as well. Chaos reigning for a friend’s family in transition to LA from ILF bombarded besides with feeble news commentary about past scandalous care failings, more fear. Ms Widdecombe is not a template sort of lady and she might just have something to offer, she shone brightly locally and was very approachable and kind.
speed of light reply same day, opening with ” Oh dear, how distressing for everyone”
” This was certainly not an appropriate occasion for a standard letter, sometimes when an MP has received a reply from a minister about a particular issue he or she uses that as a basis to answer all other letters ” . Sadly she closed with the obvious statement that she is no longer in parliament, so back to the feckless bunch that are.
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Hello Sara
Firstly I am really sorry for your loss and I fully support the LB bill. I hope it applies to Scotland as well.
I came across the BBC interview you and your husband had recently. Everything you both said about the NHS lack of transparency and candour mirrors exactly my family’s experience of the system. It is completely cynical.
One of the important issues raised by yourselves was that further scrutiny should be placed on how much public money the NHS [ I would add the LAs and the social care sector] use on defence lawyers. Families are facing an insurmountable battle to obtain documentation and records.
We have struggled to find solicitors who will request all documentation.
Our issue was the care of the elderly and mental illness. My elderly relative was hospitalised in London after a fall. The hospital was desperate to discharge her and she was released into a care home when family at the time was unable to take her back due to illness. She went to 2 successive care homes where she was taunted and bullied eventually resulting in her being assaulted at one of the care homes. One of them was a ‘five star council run home’. What we did not realise until much later was that at the hospital they had dislocated her shoulder and did nothing to treat it. Social care was aware of it because they wrote it down on her care plan. They deliberately omitted to give family of the care plan so were were not aware she had a dislocated shoulder. She ended up being in constant pain and disabled.
They tried to carry out an ‘internal inquiry’ regarding the assault. However we reported to the police. Four years on, we still have had no information on what the conclusion was. We removed her at her request to live with family.
With the advent of the government combining social care and the NHS on the pretext of saving money, this means there is no-where independent for families to go.
Most recently the district nurses being mooted as ‘voices in the community’ means that they can make up any stories they like and put it into the vulnerable person’s records without challenge. If the person has properties then it becomes lucrative for them to target the person.
My advise to anyone with a vulnerable person at home is to set up ‘Smartcams’ to record every single meeting and conversation with healthcare personnel and social care personnel. It will come down to your words against theirs quite frankly. Also have registered powers of attorney in place. Lastly have a ‘contact record’ of timelines of meetings etc. The NHS consistently ignore the Human rights legislation. It is a body which creates complete distrust amongst the public.
If you have the time and can provide any info privately via email on how we could obtain documentation I would appreciate it.
As all mental health NHS services are already privatised, or, to be privatised, and, taken over and commissioned, effectively by HSCTs, there will be very little if any transparency, as private corporations are not subject to FOIA and can hide behind corporate confidentiality.
The commissioning, subcontracting of mental services, and selling out of unprofitable parts, those against actions are taken, make it a legal minefield, to know even who to sue, let alone, be able to succeed against.
And, as all mental health services, will effectively, soon be owned by just 2 large conglomerates Priory and Cygnet, worth billions with a cult mentality, codes of conduct and millions to spend on lawyers, and complaint averse procedures, all will be even less accountable than it is now, which does not bode well for services.
Google finolamoss for further information.