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Community & Community Care Development This website seeks to promote a better understanding of communities. How they are formed, how they change, evolve and fail. It seeks to 'Empower' ordinary people to take charge of their lives and organise themselves on more meaningful basis than simple political dogma. Health & Social Care Professionals Web-space This website takes a critical and reflective view on the Professions and Institution that support people and communities in which they live. It promoted a Radial Review of psycho-sociological understanding, taking into account the very latest scientific knowledge & theories. Anti-Abuse & Anti-Discrimination Support Site This website addresses the issue of all forms of abuse, prejudice & discrimination. It operated from the fundamental principles of the Treaties on Human Rights and Disability Rights. These underpin the Laws that govern all aspects of our lives. It starts with simple assertion that: 'There are no excuses'. Justifying 'any' disempowering and abusive behaviour is Abusive itself (given a right to self protection). Human Sciences - Academic Website This website promotes a fundamental revision of the theoretical basis upon which we make many professionals and academic judgments. Established social, psychological and psychiatric concepts owe too much of their understanding to a very limited empirical science and 'ad-hock', partisan & commonplace interpretation of the 'evidence'. Visit Web - Community Magazine Website The magazine focuses on issues and stories which 'evidence' the need to rethink how we consider the needs of people, the risks encountered and the experiences they have. It seeks to provided and identify more effective solutions to problems and ways of overcoming difficulties Your Choice Magazine, Forum Blog Space This is a general area for the contribution of ideas, presenting issues and discussing problems, which cover the whole spectrum of personal, professional, community, cultural and academic life. Each area has its own space, but the the fusion of all perspectives is most important. Its Your Choice - Office Live Website This site focuses more on the international issues of abuse, prejudice and discrimination. It is still under early development, but contributions to the international issues would be appreciated.
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We are interested in Professional's and Service User's accounts of the Highs & Lows of Life, about Professional Services and Voluntary & Community Experiences. We are all in the same boat. Sharing experiences is therapeutic. It informs and inspires others. It informs & challenges Service Providers:
Also visit our VISITWEB Magazine Check out the Features via the Links on the right ->>>>. Headlines and Articles are in the links at the top right column. Some of these stories will 'be transferred to the 'Your Choice' Magazine.
This site will eventually focus upon the Health & Social Care Issues, Advice, Therapies, Techniques, Recoveries & Theory.
Forums & Chat Rooms:
Because of technical problems and hacking, we have had to re-start our Forum Pages. We are keeping it simple. If you want to chat about problems on-line, use our chat space. You can open your own chat-room & book counselling.
If there anyone able to help us in these areas would be appreciated. I do not have the time to keep these areas working properly on my own. Fund raising would also help.
If you prefer, you can still send us emails, in order to get your stories and issues published. Just let us know if you want it published as a story, or a Forum entry (for discussion). Also ask us if you want it 'edited' for its final presentation.
Please feel free to use our 'chat room' for keeping in touch with each other and for discussing problems with us. If it is not in use just go ahead. If it is in use, we can created a private chat room room for you. FORUM - BLOG - CHAT
Solicitors Advice Concerning Professional Assumptions and Decision - Friday, April 16, 2010 5:43 AM EST
The advice below was provided following a legal enquiry, concerning the unjust, disabling and sometimes unlawful restrictions placed upon many individuals and families, within many disability groups. They are deemed to be 'potentially' at risk and have a mental capacity that is professionally assumed to be 'generally' restricted. They are effectively asked to 'prove' that they have capacity.
"This is a difficult one set against the background of a nanny state that now tries to tell how to do everything and litigation where there is seen to be a failure to intervene and control a situation in areas such as social work.
As such you are trying to achieve the correct balance is a situation where the prevailing pressure is going the other way.
I cannot see a court interfering here because the local authority has a wide discretion as to how they exercise these type of policies and it would be difficult for a judge to criticise a LA for being "too caring" even though the effects you see are actually restrictive, condescending and offensive.
The change needs to be at policy level and you have made the start by airing the subject what I would do next is lots of homework and try to find studies conducted in different countries of similar schemes that support my contention.
I would put together a document for discussion. Do not make it critical, you have your own position to think of but put it out as food for thought".
Bureaucratic Madness - Australia, New Zealand & USA - Institutions miss the point entirely:
Bureaucratic and Risk Averse Institutions are not limited to the UK's increasingly 'Nanny State' Culture.
There seems to be no limit to the stupidity of of Institution's 'overreaction' to complaints and concerns. Why is it, with our increased understanding of the impact of Prejudice and Discrimination and the hard work in creating internationally agreed Treaty of Human Rights, and Disability Rights, that our institutions can so badly interpret these 'obligations'?
In Australia, as in the UK, Institutions are interpreting Human Rights in highly restricting and 'disabling' ways, which severely restrict peoples lives and the opportunities available for all. In the case I am referring to here, we have a Hospital that is so concerned for the sensitivities of a very few that they have effectively 'Sacked' a popular Voluntary, Pastoral Care Worker
TALENT - THE EXPRESSION OF THE ALTERNATIVE INTELLIGENCES AND CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES: We are constrained from seeing the beauty of variety and difference, by fear of the unknown, until it is 'framed' for us. We are here to put 'difference' into the frame and provide a window on prejudices that limit our horizons.
13 August 2009; Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian artist won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. http://www.youtube.com/watch
The reason I include this feature is quite simple. In my work, at various times (as a social worker, counsellor, therapist advocate, community worker and in the leisure industry), I have met so many exceptionally talented and variously intelligent people who are denied the opportunities to develop their talents.
When a attractive child (or adult), who has a popular skill or talent, comes into the news, we are usually genuinely impressed. Occasionally, someone who is less physically attractive has such an exceptional talent that we are moved to to include them into the cult of celebrity.
Very occasionally, someone with exceptional, but rather novel talent gets our attention. We all appreciate peoples talents and skills, once they brought to our notice. Those with talent usually appreciate our adoration in return.
I have met so many people with exceptional talents, emotional endurance, long-suffering resilience, alternative intelligences and insight, which have largely gone ignored and unrecognised. This site & sister sites, are dedicated to bring these talents to the fore, against inferior competition. Video Page (Click here for for more)
Communities Do Matter - Have a Heart:
Ordinary People make Communities work:
Back To Basics - Drugs, Alcohol and Stuff:
By all accounts there are some drug concern that are simply Urban Myths, like 'Strawberry Quick', a flavoured Crystal Meth, allegedly being pushed in Schools in the UK. This kind of scam started in the USA in the 1970's.
These kinds of scams happen from time to time and can distract from the real drug problems. The myths are always base on a little bit of truth and it is always possible that some creep could produce something nasty on a small scale. They rarely just give stuff away though. Alcopops and Shots are the nearest real thing.
There are drugs that are made 'attractive', in this way, But drug pushers are usually greedy. They usually want something for what they give out. There is no such thing as a free hand-out in the world of drug & alcohol 'pushers'. There is always a well planned payoff for them.
Some myths are put about by drug users & pushers. Attempts to cloud the real issue, or to add some 'mythology'. Some pushers are just ‘sick’ and do not care who they supply to. Sometimes they will share out drugs to kids, for a laugh. Alcoholics like to find ‘drinking buddies’. It make them feel better. Drug users will often do the same kind of thing.
Like most myths, these can be used to highlight the issue that the myth raises. In that sense, they are worth discussing, if it means people will look out for these potential dangers. A bit like the Myth of Vampires and Werewolves can be used to warn kids to watch out for evil people, who could do the harm.
Drugs are a real problem and drugs are being 'pushed' onto kids and many people who are vulnerable (people with learning difficulties and mental health problems, etc.). The age is getting progressively younger and drugs can show up in junior schools (or just outside, at lunch times, in the toilets; just like smoking).
Kids are natural experimenter and are easily influenced, especially if it makes them feel ‘part of the gang’. Sometime they can even be ‘left out’ because they do not go along with their mates. Vulnerable adults are also at risk, wishing to be part of group and to be accepted.
Drugs are also used to lower resistance for obtaining sex, including with very young people, by people of a similar age and by much older people. Drugs and alcohol are also used to get people to part with their money and to get young people to do their bidding (including theft).
Sometimes the 'drugs' are mixed with anything that will have an ‘effect’. This makes ‘drugs’ very cheap and is usually convincing enough to someone who is not experienced in these things. Like the first time you get drunk, we convince ourselves we enjoyed ourselves, even though it felt awful. We often feel we have to be ‘up for it’.
Date rape drugs, Alco-pops, cider and vodka are popular dugs to misuse in this way, making the kids and other vulnerable people, feel more grown up for going along with those who ‘push’ them. The people who do this are despicable human beings and think they are being clever. They take advantage of kids affected in these ways.
They usually do not care about the ultimate effects they have on the person, sometimes for the rest of their lives. I know, because I have worked with people who end up with serious drug and drink problems as a result and others who have been raped and beaten up.
No one believes ‘it will happen to them’ and the ‘pushers’ often seem glamorous at the time (but they usually end up the same, or dead and forgotten). Of course, some people do get away with it much of the time, usually ‘sociopaths’ and ‘psychopaths’, who don’t give a damn about anyone and do well because they will step on anybody.
How do I know all this? I have mixed with them, befriended them and studied them at close hand. I have also worked with people with the very serious mental health problems that result from the over use of alcohol and use of most drugs forms of 'mind altering' drugs.
It is quite common for people to be diagnosed as having Schizophrenia. They are then introduced to some very serious drugs, ones that they often do not recover from (unless they meet someone like me). There is a lot of ignorance around drugs & mental health, even by professionals.
Combinations of drug, alcohol, physical and sexual abuse, deprivation and the trauma of miserable experiences (especially during adolescence) cause ‘psychosis'. This is recoverable from (when it is recognised). Unfortunately, drugs are often missed as a cause and the person is assumed to have a condition that requires treatment for life.
There are also serious mental health problems that are the result of all the consequences of rape and sexual abuse. Sometime young people even believe they have a ‘choice’ in this (they don’t – they have been hooked). Physical abuse, which often follows on from these early experiences, is also very common.
This drug sex and rock-and-roll con affect boy as well as girls. Drug pushers and perverts (often the same people) often do not care which sex people are. It is the fact they are young that turns them on. Unfortunately, once someone gets into this whole scene, it is very difficult to get out. Life looks good till it goes wrong.
Again, I know. I am often helping people break the habit, when they realise (years later) that the drugs and the abuse was what sent them 'mad', made them perpetual 'victims' of abuse and left them ‘dumped’ because they had served their use.
It becomes a convincing way of life. Some people do not survive it and are changed completely from the person they were, often becoming more like the people who ‘push’ the drugs on them. These people call themselves ‘pushers’. The name fits and they are usually proud of it.
I have one piece of advice, especially if you are ‘liberal’ in judging others. If you know of someone who has made a career out of pushing drugs and alcohol onto kids of any age; ‘Shop Them’, every time, using the confidential help line if necessary. Collect enough details and names and Shop them time after time.
Help make their lives a misery and you know what? You could be doing them (as the rest of us) a big favour. Drugs and alcohol usually alter our perceptions and remove the usual limitations on what we do to people (disinhibiting). Drug use is dangerous for everyone. Driving, taking risks, becoming victims of crime and abuse, etc.
Drug pushers (especially those further down the ‘Neanderthal’ chain) are actually quite ‘evil’. They would enjoy being identified in that way. It is not just that they do not care (bad enough) it is that they actually ‘enjoy’ causing suffering and doing harm to others.
They are about as sick as a human being can get; worse than murderers (which they often are also). I run a website that is designed to help people get out of the trap and also help them ‘identify’ the ‘abusive’ people in their lives. Some are everybody’s friend and live very ‘normal’ lives. The worst of them don’t look or sound like monsters (but they are).
If you think you are ‘trapped’ in this drugs, sex, rock-n-roll way, get some help. If you are having problems go to the website and we will try to point you to where you can get the right kind of help. If you know there is something wrong, then it is not too late. Best thing though, don’t get fooled and pulled in in the first place. www.visitweb.org/antiabuse/emergency.htm
Please feel free to contact myself on any Health & Social Care issue, Personal, therapeutic, or counselling matter. The level of confidentiality and/or disclosure will be restricted to your choice.
We are interested in Professional's and Service User's accounts of the Highs & Lows of Life, about Professional Services and Voluntary & Community Experiences. We are all in the same boat. Sharing experiences is therapeutic. It informs and inspires others. It informs & challenges Service Providers:
By all accounts there are some drug concern that are simply Urban Myths, like 'Strawberry Quick', a flavoured Crystal Meth, allegedly being pushed in Schools in the UK. This kind of scam started in the USA in the 1970's.