A human rights group must continue piling pressure on the UK government over autistic people in hospitals.
That’s the view of campaigning parent Caroline Hopton.
Campaigner Caroline Hopton wants an end to hospital detentions
She is urging the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to keep fighting over detentions in mental health hospitals.
The EHRC announced it was considering action against the Government in February.
Legal challenge
Hopton, 57, is crowdfunding a legal challenge over the detention of people with autism and learning disabilities.
Up to 2,100 people with autism and learning disabilities, including 220 children, remain in hospitals. Inspectors have often criticised the hospitals for a culture of over-medication and restraint.
Hopton has two autistic sons. They are Ollie, 21, and Harry, 22.
The mum-of-two, from Windsor, said it’s “critical” the EHRC keeps up the pressure.
Hopton said the community could “easily” support many of the patients.
She called the lack of progress “barbaric”.
‘Huge sums’ invested in hospitals
Isabelle Garnett, 52, campaigned with husband Robin, 52, to get son Matthew out of specialist hospital St Andrew’s, Northampton.
The 20-year-old spent nearly two years there, enduring fortnightly restraints and forced injections, Garnett claims.
Garnett, from London, has been heavily involved in the #HumanToo campaign to get people out of hospitals.
Matthew, who has autism and ADHD, is now thriving in residential care.
Garnett said change will not come until the “huge sums” invested in hospitals are diverted to “support in the community”.
“Modern-day asylums”
Charities Mencap and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation said coronavirus is condemning people to still longer stays in these “modern-day asylums”.
The EHRC says its legal dispute remains in the “pre-action” stage.
The organisation is scheduled to meet officials “shortly” from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England.
Autism Eye contacted the DHSC, but it did not respond.
View the crowdfunding page
You can view Hopton’s crowdfunding page here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/remove-autism-and-ld-from-mental-health-act/
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Published: 28 September 2020
