Pause for thought
“Mike Stanton” of “action for autism” a member of the “autism hub” drew our attention to a “new case” which needs our thought. You can read the article here in the “Mail online” and I’ll update with a link to the Channel 4 programme soon.
Very best wishes to Henry and his family.
If this seems an unlikely turn of events watch “here” it’s about 1 minute into the piece after the headlines and it’s about the first 9 minutes long. Click on the right side where it shows Ben Haslam [part three] and hit play. [Mon 14th July] I needed the volume up full to hear it. Bear in mind that the current US dollar to sterling is 2:1.
I’ll let you know when I figure out how to access part 1 and 2.
Thanks to Sarah Spiller for this series.
To read an educated opinion on this trend go “here” on “Left Brain Right Brain.”
For me, tonight’s nightmare will consist of a private and personal discussion:- ‘would we be willing to relinquish custody of our children to have their needs met by the State?’
But we’re lucky, as it’s only a theoretical debate.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Do I trust the State to meet Joey’s needs?
HELL NO.
End of debate around here.
We’ve had good luck this year, but we’ve seen what can happen to children with ineffective advocacy, and it is not pretty. If last year had remotely echoed Joey’s preschool, we would have pulled him from school in a heartbeat. Too much energy going to fight people who are paid to watch their budgets- that energy could be well used to teaching my kids.
If I was threatened with my child’s removal? The moment that was even whispered, I’d be mortgaging my house to retain a lawyer. We’ve had too many stories where removal has actually happened to mess around with even the suggestion.
We always worry about people who can’t hire lawyers, who don’t understand the system, and kids without anyone to advocate for them. What will happen to them? But we have to focus on Joey first. Perhaps by doing that, as parents before us have done, it will blaze some trails for those who come after.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
People have done exactly that here. I am trying through google to find out if the Ombudsman did get the rules changed that allows for parents of disabled children to keep custody while in group homes. It was in the news a couple of years ago. Found some of it.
http://www.specialneedsdreamworks.com/about.html
“for denying services to this sector and for forcing families to abandon or relinquish custody in order to access group home care and/or in home supports that are sufficient to the need” “On May 26, 2005, the Ontario Ombudsman released a report addressing the issue of parents being forced to relinquish the custody of their special needs children in order to obtain necessary care. The report, entitled “Between a Rock and a Hard Placeâ€, urged the Province to remove the moratorium on funding for Special Needs Agreements and to return the custody of special needs children to their parents.
Since June 2005, the government has taken steps to return the custody of special needs children to their parents. However, the government has not removed the moratorium and continues to refuse to enter into any new Special Needs Agreements. A copy of the Ombudsman’s report may be obtained at http://www.reko.ca.”
I had (while we were still in program) heard rumours locally of ABA/IBI using FACS to force parents to keep their children in the program. I am fairly convinced if it wasn’t for my FSW that would have happened to us. At our “good-bye” mtg at my FSW’s office there was the Lead T, Sr T, their boss and the Dr (psychologist) from the program. Makes you wonder doesn’t it since they drilled me on how I was planning on educating my son. They also pulled a few stunts at the school that fall… we had left him in the transfer to school program… and they removed them as well. I refused to deal with them by telephone and any messages I got via email I immediately sent to “god and everyone” when I replied since they were always sent directly to me.
I had had enough and was in full CYA mode.
S.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hi Maddy. Thanks for visiting my blog today! Just be scaning your entries here for a few minutes, I will say that you definitely have the gift of writing! Thanks for introducing yourself…I’ll be back to chat again!
July 14th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Holy hell!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, this is beyond reasonable and acceptable – this is barbaric.
I homeschool my son because it didn’t matter how many reports, guidelines, policies, care plans, etc that we furnished the local school with they chose to ignore them and compounded my son’s confusion, frustration and anxiety every day by ignoring his basic needs.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Our state isn’t AWFUL, I mean, there’s access to services and insurance pays for a few things. But they don’t pay for much. I’m better off having private insurance plus the state insurance plus what we pay for out of pocket ($$$$ this year). It stinks. I wish they all had access to the private stuff. They NEED it.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
You know, I just get frightened, frustrated and angry all at once sometimes. I think I’m there now.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:29 am
This is, as Jayne said, barbaric. I’ve often worried about similar repercussions if I refused to medicate my son, which is the main reason I agreed to do a trial to begin with. And that’s in a district that is actually pretty good in terms of services. What a frightening world.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:00 am
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July 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
[...] at Whitterer on Autism posted about state agencies in the UK removing children from families, not to provide them better, [...]