Beware of Home Care
Calvita | 10.08.2012 16:57 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles
Increasingly we're being told that sick & vulnerable people would be better off in the community that in institutions. What has happened to the mentally ill shows that this is probably untrue.
This week two reports were issued urging that:
1. People with Down's Syndrome and
2. Elderly people in need of care
should be moved out of institutions and cared for in the community. Those arguing for this say that it is not only cheaper, but also better for those who need care.
Similar things were said back in the 90s when Care In The Community was introduced for mentally ill people. However, in 2007 the Labour government ordered Mental Health Services to stop helping the mentally ill. It said that life was too easy for them, and they should be forced to do things for themselves. This was part of a cruel strategy to 'force them to stop being mentally ill'. The fact that Labour did this even before the 2008 financial crisis shows there's more than one nasty party in this country.
Despite the cut in spending this enabled, budgets for care of the mentally ill have continued to be cut, with almost no publicity.
For me personally, this has been catastrophic. I'm really too ill now to write about it. I can't even feed myself properly, but when I ask the Community Mental Health Trust for help, they just say "That's YOUR problem".
A few months ago a mentally ill woman stopped taking her medication and burned herself to death in the toilet of a train. The Inquest ruled that her care had been "adequate". That gives some idea of how low the standard of care for mentally ill people has become.
1. People with Down's Syndrome and
2. Elderly people in need of care
should be moved out of institutions and cared for in the community. Those arguing for this say that it is not only cheaper, but also better for those who need care.
Similar things were said back in the 90s when Care In The Community was introduced for mentally ill people. However, in 2007 the Labour government ordered Mental Health Services to stop helping the mentally ill. It said that life was too easy for them, and they should be forced to do things for themselves. This was part of a cruel strategy to 'force them to stop being mentally ill'. The fact that Labour did this even before the 2008 financial crisis shows there's more than one nasty party in this country.
Despite the cut in spending this enabled, budgets for care of the mentally ill have continued to be cut, with almost no publicity.
For me personally, this has been catastrophic. I'm really too ill now to write about it. I can't even feed myself properly, but when I ask the Community Mental Health Trust for help, they just say "That's YOUR problem".
A few months ago a mentally ill woman stopped taking her medication and burned herself to death in the toilet of a train. The Inquest ruled that her care had been "adequate". That gives some idea of how low the standard of care for mentally ill people has become.
Calvita
Comments
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Join DPAC, fight together.
15.08.2012 08:20
I do know of clued-up, vocal, disabled people who have fought to get themselves funding that enables them to organise their own support as and when they need it. Yes, it's under threat, but I still don't understand why there isn't more sharing of how to go about this. Perhaps there's a fear that if everyone knew how to fight for their support, there wouldn't be enough to go round? I don't know. I do know that the less vocal get ignored and ultimately forgotten. People, disabled and non-disabled need to stand and fight together, and that includes those disabled people who have already succeeded in organising their own support.
anon
The Hidden Agenda
15.08.2012 10:35
The Nazis favoured eugenics, they had a policy of extermination for those who were mentally ill, disabled, or had chronic illness.
In the UK today, whilst the government doesn't kill people directly, it is engineering things to make life so unbearable that they kill themselves. The Tories are practising eugenics in effect.
In Sussex, very many people under the so called "care" of the mental health services have died, having been "suicided". This came to a head when one of those who killed themselves (he hung himself whilst on suicide watch) was a Police sergeant. The neglect of the health services was then referred to the Police for investigation. Despite clear evidence of huge numbers of deaths by their gross and reckless negligence, they were exonerated.
This can be considered as the official policy now. Those who are unfit are "suicided" by deliberate failures.
Huxley