Have a heart - Listen past the Anger - of those abused, neglected and confounded by having to jumping through hoops to get the opportunities & support they are entitled to; so they can have a proper place in our communities.

Who do we think we are? We have 65 years of International Human Rights legislation and 40 years of 'enabling' government guidelines. Yet we can still find the most feeble excuses and spurious evidence, to justify hiding away our collective failures to provide appropriate support to people who simply make us feel 'uncomfortable'.

We bully our 'mini institutions' to unlawfully restrict people's freedom, to save us from embarrassment and avoid the possibility of criticisms when we screw up. We fear allowing some people 'normal lives', with its attendant risks. Even with the latest clarifications on Mental Capacity, Informed Choice and Rights to Dignity, we collude and pretend that we can justify unacceptably restrictive behaviour.

Stop the Sigma of Mental Ill Health, Autism, Learning Disability and being different, in any other 'inconvenient' way. There are too many excuses to 'lock people up'; 'out of sight & out of mind'. There are few risks in the vast majority of cases, other than those that 'we' create for them, by inexperience and generating the agitated behaviour we might reasonably expect of any other human being who is unjustly treated.

It is the inconvenience and embarrassment, which drives us to restrict these people's freedoms as we do, and treat them as if they have fewer Human Rights. It is actually unjust often unlawful and abusive, except in the rarest, most exceptional and justifiable cases (where there is concrete evidence of significant danger to self, or others). Let us get the facts right - inconvenience and embarrassment is not enough.

In 'locking people up', in 'pretty little prisons' (Residential Homes & Hospitals), with just enough funding support to keep them alive, we take away their social skills, limit opportunities for learning, cause serious distress, generate frustrations and provoke anger. Frankly, we act in ways that provoke reactions, which then justify our behaviour.

Most of all; it is unlawful, but few will speak up for fear of criticism, by those who pretend to know best (often due to arrogant assumption).  The institutions place restrictions on people out of fear of 'difference' and of being sued. The likelihood of being sued by the person they are imprisoning is less likely than by those who helped place them there.

We believe that the ‘experts’ know best, but they are often simply trying to avoid criticism from the rest of us for ‘letting them go free’. Of course, things can 'happen', sometimes sad, sometimes bad, but mostly fun. That is life as we choose it! Sometimes people need our support, but they do not need our condescension and isolation.

'What if they walk under a bus', we ask? "What if they get lost?', 'What if they embarrass themselves?’ 'What if they have a fit?', 'What if they hit someone for saying the wrong thing (or when someone abuses them)?’. What if they have sex, or even become pregnant?, etc. So, who else should we lock away on the same basis?

Get a life folks. In what other areas of life do we lock away 'potential victims'. Is it easier than sorting out the increasing number of abusers, or is there something more unsavoury about this whole arrangement? If 'normal' behaviour puts people at risk, sort out the normal behaviour! Cary on like this you had better have very deep pockets folks.

Life is not perfect for any of us. We feel discomfort when things are not nice and tidy, but this extreme reaction restricts these people’s lives unbearably. There would be real problems if we locked away girls who wear mini-skirts out at night, because of the risk of rape. Or, those who choose to get drunk, to the point of being off their heads. There really are some serious double standards here!

I find people who are 'labelled' in these ways are often more sensible and considerate than the average teenager and many supposedly intelligent adults. Most are less dangerous to themselves & others than the average drunk, abusive neighbour or football hooligan. God save us from ‘normals’, who go round in gangs, mugging people, start fights and abusing their kids and partners behind their locked doors.

Lock me up (or any of you) like this and you will be asking for real problems. I would be showing some serious ‘behaviour problems'. There are no surprises there. We create most of the problems by treating people unfairly unjustly and in wholly condescending & insulting ways. Stop listening to the lame excuses and insist that people are ‘helped’ to live normal lives, as they are entitled.

Let People Be, to live their lives, as we would wish for ourselves.  We take risks every day and we only sometimes learn from our mistakes. 35 years of positive experience convinced me that those 'labelled' these way can be helped to learn survival skills and often do better than the rest of us.

Restricting normal life experience removes the opportunities to learn safely from the little mistakes we all make, usually under supervision. They are then at risk, whatever we do, especially if they take the initiative (as is their choice) to do something for themselves, or when an emergency arises where we are not available for them. We actually put people in danger by these limiting and restrictive actions.

If an idiot like me can succeed, time after time, with people who are seen as having insurmountable problems, there is no excuse for all the intelligent 'normals' out there. I have proven the potential of even supposedly 'severely' disabled people to manage their lives adequately with minimal support. Have a Heart, give people a chance and help them get back to having normal lives (but not as we know it).

Join me in ‘Your Choice’ – (www.visitweb.org ). Do your bit to change our communities for the better of all. You have more power than you think. Speak up against injustice and insist we are more tolerant of ‘Difference’. Break the bad habits of a lifetime. Stand up & be counted. Play your part in providing support and get enabling support in return.