by Peter Watt
Sometimes you read something so depressing and so disheartening that it ruins your day. I have just had that experience as I read the report from South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board into the appalling events that took place at Winterbourne View hospital.
You will remember the case; Winterbourne View was a hospital based in Bristol for adults with learning disabilities and autism. A BBC Panorama undercover journalist secured a job there following a whistle-blower contacting them with concerns about the abuse of patients. The resulting programme shocked all who saw it and has resulted in eleven former workers pleading guilty to almost 40 charges of abuse and Winterbourne View, owned by Castlebeck Ltd, being closed.
I should declare an interest here. Two of my children have special needs and may very well need some form of supervised accommodation as adults. I also have a brother in his early thirties who is in a smallish supervised accommodation unit. Worrying about what happens when they are older and you aren’t there to protect them is something that all parents worry about. To be honest, as a parent of children with special needs, the fear is debilitating.
Reading the report into events at Winterbourne View is like reading an account of some of my very worst nightmares.
Remember that we are talking about some of our most vulnerable fellow human beings here who are least able to defend themselves. The quality of their lives really is in the hands of those entrusted with their care; if bad things happen when noone else is looking then nobody may ever know.
And at Winterbourne View there was certainly abuse (I personally would call it torture) with patients being humiliated, physically restrained, covered in cold water and left outside, hurt and over-prescribed sedatives.
