A group of parents has published a guide to help families understand and cope with Care and Treatment Reviews (CTRs).
CTRs are held for anyone with learning disabilities and autism staying in an assessment and treatment unit, a specialist kind of hospital.
They also take place if people are at risk of admission to these hospitals.
Debs Aspland, director of Bringing Us Together, says the response to their Survival Guide to Care and Treatment Reviews has been “amazing”
The parents have first-hand experience of CTRs. Many of them have fought lengthy battles to get their children out of assessment and treatment units or have children still in these settings.
They set up a social enterprise called Bringing Us Together. Its first goal was to publish Care & Treatment Reviews: A Family Survival Guide.
What CTRs consider
The group’s guide explains what CTRs consider. They decide if the person needs be in a hospital or can be treated safely in the community.
Debs Aspland is the director of Bringing Us Together. Aspland, 46, from Kent, said the response from families to their guide has been “amazing”.
She said: “It was aimed at parents and written by parents. We tried to get all the jargon out of there.”
As of 22 August the group’s website, bringingustogether.org.uk, had more than 1,000 hits on the page where the guide can be downloaded.
‘Fantastic resource’
On Twitter, anti-exclusion group NDTi described it as a “fantastic resource”. Learning disability nurse Anne Webster added to the praise by calling it “great work”.
Aspland added: “The biggest thing for us has been the fact that so many people have made the effort to comment and talk about it on Twitter, saying what a really good resource it’s been for them.”
Aspland herself has three children with disabilities, though none of them are in an ATU.
You can download the guide from here: http://bringingustogether.org.uk/survival-guides/
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Published: 5 September 2017
