Stop  abusive treatment of people with disabilities in residential insitutions

People with intellectual disabilities living in an institution in Bristol were treated badly. The government should make sure that this will not happen again anywhere in the country. This case proves that it is better for people with disabilities to live in the community and not un special institutions.

Disability organisations, authorities and citizens in UK are still shocked after the BBC Panarama’s programme uncovered cases of routine abuse at a residential hospital for people with intellectual disabilities and autism near Bristol, UK. The programme was broadcasted on Tuesday 31 May and showed how some of the patients in Winterbourne View hospital were repeatedly "pinned down, slapped, dragged into showers while fully clothed, taunted and teased".

The Care Quality Commission in UK (CQC) is now carrying out an audit of what happened in the hospital. Four people were arrested after the emission and then released on police bail. Two other staff members were arrested later.The hospital's owners, Castlebeck, have also launched an internal investigation. The company has apologised and suspended 13 employees and the patients filmed by Panorama have been moved to safety.

According to the BBC, Winterbourne View is privately owned and taxpayer-funded. The hospital charges an average of £3,500 per patient per week and Castlebeck has an annual turnover of £90m.

The BBC programme decided to film secretly after being informed by Terry Bryan, a former senior nurse at the hospital, about the worrying behaviour of some of the support workers. Mr Bryan had previously reported his concerns to the hospital management and the CQC, but his complaint was not taken into consideration. The CQC is now planning to conduct a programme of urgent unannounced inspections of 150 similar hospitals in the private sector and the National Health System and Mr Bryan has been asked forkk advice on this issue.

The videos showed by the BBC prove the need for a stricter control of care homes and question the suitability of taking people with disabilities to special institutions that keep them away from their families and excluded from society.

Unfortunately, many other cases of abuse in the UK and other European countries remain uncovered. Inclusion Europe is a strong advocate of the transition from residential institutions to community-based care. The right to live in the community, anchored in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is on our key demands. "In order to be included in society, we need to live there," says Andrew Doyle, Inclusion Europe Board member and President of the European Platform of Self-Advocates.

We hope that wide medlialisation of this shocking case will contribute to higher awareness of this probelm and specific measures will be taken to put an end to·this deplorable·behaviours and facilitate full enjoyment of human rights for people with disabilities.

Mencap's chief executive Mark Goldring has reacted to the abuse at Winterbourne View: "People with a learning disability should be treated with the same dignity and respect as anyone else in our society and it is truly harrowing to see vulnerable people suffer at the hands of those who are supposed to care for them." He said that the people using the service ″had been failed by agencies including the local Primary Care Trust and the CQC, but also by the staff and managers who have shown an unforgivable lack of humanity".