Hi everyone; Can you do me a favour? Pass the word around, if you would. I need your help, most importantly, these people do. If you do, I promise you, it will help you and your family one day: It is Everybody’s Business. People with Learning Difficulties may be slow to learn and people with Autism are very clever, but we may have difficulties understanding what they know and try to communicate. They are none of them stupid, they are actually often very clever and very insightful into the needs of others. There is something that extends beyond mere 'intelligence'. Given the real support and opportunity, most can manage to learn to do all the basic things we can do and sometimes better. It is often ‘us’ that has the problem and it is us ‘normals’ that abuse them and deprive them of the opportunities to live ordinary lives. The degree and amount of ignorance, even in the professions, is astounding. Fact, not opinion. People with learning and Socialising problems and those with Mental Health difficulties, Dementia and many other disabilities, including sensory and physical problems, are entitled to exactly the same rights as ourselves. The can only be restricted in what they do if there is an evidenced, direct & immediate danger to themselves or others. Being different, getting angry, or being a ‘nuisance’ is not enough. If I was treated like many are, I would be very angry. I am angry at the ignorance I see every day and I refuse to stay quiet. All Professional responsibilities are to ‘inform’, ‘enable’ and ‘include’ people, whatever Profession, whatever Status and whoever you are. This is the law. All Professionals (and us) have to act in ways which are the ‘least restrictive’ to anyone’s lives. We are entitled to the same for ourselves. Many institutions (and professionals) give them a bad time and restrict their actions unlawfully, out of fear for themselves and being criticised by their bosses, or costing too much money. All professionals, carers and family members have to ‘prove’ a person is not able to protect themselves in and particular way. They are then obliged to support the person to do what they lawfully want to do ‘safely’, without unnecessary interference, or restriction. They must check on each occasion whether the risk remains and adjust the support accordingly. There are very few exceptions, mostly just ‘personal harm’. Professionals have to ‘think’ about every action they take that may be ‘restrictive’, checking and changing those restrictions as soon as the person is able to make safe decisions for them-selves. People are entitled to take some risks, provided they recognise and balance the risks and are there and are able to accept the consequences. We all do this most of the time and sometimes we take risks where we do not know the consequences. So – same applies for all, without discrimination. Read more at www.visitweb.org and pass this message onto all your friends. This ‘professional responsibility’ to support people in this way can cost money and that is why the law is so often broken by health & local authorities. In my work and through my website, I see this all the time. The irony is, these attitudes are what is costing us all so much now. People become highly ‘dependent’, de-skilled, frustrated, angry and many will ‘act out’, requiring more expensive support and professional time. It is very short-term thinking. I have proven, time after time, over the last 35 years, how uncompromising and ‘enabling’, ‘person centred’ way of working makes people safer, happier, less dependent and of greater benefit to others. Every day I have to spend hours of my time struggling against bad, restrictive and often very ignorant attitudes, to get the simplest social justice; for people who deserve better than what they are getting. The job is being made harder each year, through the miss use of professional powers. Many people use these various ‘clinical terms’ in derogatory ways. These terms were invented by intelligent professional experts and then they misused by others less intelligent; to ‘classify ‘people’ rather than their problems. We have all learned those bad uses. Please help us stop this and change attitudes. Speak up in support of this cause. Stop all forms of abuse, including INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE. Not everyone who looks drunk, angry, or aggressive, is actually drunk. They may have a serious neurological condition, or epilepsy. Not everyone who looks like they are on drugs are using illegal substances. They sometimes have a condition that gives this impression. Sometimes they have been put on medication that has serious side effects. Sometimes they are on medication types and levels that are toxic and abusive, easier than providing other forms of support, or checking out the real need. I have worked in these fields and tried to put a stop to these bad attitudes and practices for 35 years and I am so disappointed that I still meet so many professionals who really do not understand Human Rights, or even give a damn. The institutions protect themselves by pretending to protect the people they are supposed to be helping to ‘include’. What chance is there that we can all learn to be tolerant; if professional institutions refuse to change and follow the legal responsibilities that they are given. If anyone feels uncomfortable with this stand then that is “anyone’s” problem; Do not allow them to make it those I am speaking about. I would not ask you to do anything that I have not done for myself and proven time after time, or have proven completely competent in (by the people I help). We are too fond of looking at what does not work, rather than enjoying what does. We are too quick to interfere in people’s lives if they are ‘different’. Too quick to judge without self-reflection, on the basis of expert dogma. Who are the deluded ones here? We are an ‘off the peg, one size fits all, bully boy (girl), I am the boss, I am the expert, do as I say’ culture. When we read, or hear something by an expert with impressive qualifications, we usually believe they know what they are talking about. Just because someone has been around a while they sometimes get into positions of power that are beyond their competence, or because they are good at getting ‘their way’. Remember: It was only a little over 100 years ago that psychiatrists believed they could diagnose mental illness, criminality and ‘immorals’ by feeling the bumps on people’s heads and the like. Little has changed in clinical Psychiatry, or in social care. Most of what we are doing never quite gets there. Fear and ignorance still have a large part to play in this. The obligations on all professionals are very clear in the Community Care and Health services Act. Effective, good quality practices have been around since the 1970’s; there are no excuses. ‘What will people think if you speak up?’ I can tell you: They will think you are ‘mad’, ‘unrealistic’, ‘idealistic’ and do everything they can to undermine best practice and positive attitudes towards people. They will tell you ‘That’s just your opinion’. You will sometime be treated with contempt, humiliated and even undermined and bullied. It will sometimes take courage and sometime (much fewer times than those who will criticise) you will be proved wrong. I have been arguing the case against disempowering, humiliating, neglectful and abusive behaviour towards people for nearly 40 years. I have always won in the end, but I am tired now. Speak up anyway, please. Trust your instinct and your own personal experiences with some ‘experts’ and ‘do-gooders’. Protect people from this INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE. Help support those people who have the right attitudes and want to seek to remove ignorance, prejudice, neglect, condescension and the undermining of people’s Dignity. Help them and, in doing so; Help those who deserve a better deal. Better still. Encourage those, who need that opportunity to be heard, to speak up for themselves and get what they are entitled to; Dignity, Respect and the Opportunities to live ordinary lives. © Terry Couchman; Visitweb / Your Choice; October, 2009 ; Revised: Jan 2010. | 
