Friday 16 November 2012

Knocking at Heaven's Door - 05.04.2011

The headline in The Independent 4/04 following the undercover BBC Panorama Report on Winterbourne View 'care' home read; "The care home that could have been mistaken for Abu Ghraib".
Finally it seems the Elephant has burst out of the Room with members of the staff working there having been arrested . Now Wayne and Alli and Charlotte and Graham have finally realised that there is such a thing as accountability even for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged of us. It is not good enough for the profession to dismiss this case as, 'a few bad apples' as cameras proved this to be otherwise when even the managers stood by and watched - all caught on camera like the scene from a horror movie. Appoo - a senior nurse with 35 years'  experience stood by and watched a young woman Simone with the mental age of five been hit by her 'carers' as he smiled! I wanted to cry and had to force myself to look.
the whistle had been blown by a senior nurse Terry Bryan complained to the manager of the home who did not reply so then to Care Quality Commission neither did they reply.It was up to a reporter from BBc to uncover this shocking & degrading behaviour by staff or it would be still going on as it is endemic within the present  culture of the NHS. metal health professional all the way from top to bottom where bullying of patients as well as some staff who do not 'conform' is commonplace.As  the Panorama showed such remarks as - "Don't push it or I'll push your head down the toilet." an everyday reality.
In my experience service users give up complaining as even those organisations meant to give us a voice are also complicit. If one complains - as I was by a senior manager at Whitchurch Hospital we are dismissed with such remarks as, "it was your state of mind that you perceived things as you did" - that final put down: case closed.But not at Winterbourne thankfully.
As the philosopher Edmund Burke has said,"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
The case rests here I think.

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