A parent campaigner says he is “not at all hopeful” of seeing any change for autistic and learning disabled people in long-stay hospitals because discharges have been made “over-complicated”.
Mark Neary’s comments come after Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) was told that people endure “barbaric” treatment in the hospitals, known as assessment and treatment units (ATUs).
Over-medication and restraint
Campaigners criticise the hospitals as abusively reliant on over-medication and restraint.
Neary, 62, a therapist from Cowley, London, saw his autistic son Steven, 31, held in a long-stay hospital for a year from December 2009.
In evidence to the HSCC, Bengi O’Reilly, a nurse, compared the ATU where her daughter is held in Wales to a “prison-like environment”.
Denied visits to her daughter
O’Reilly confessed she was “petrified” about speaking out. Later, she took to Twitter to tell how she is now being denied visits to her teenage daughter due to coronavirus.
This, she said, is despite the fact that she and her daughter have both received two vaccine jabs. She said she has also offered to take tests, and have socially distanced visits outdoors wearing personal protective equipment.
Neary said ATUs erect too many obstacles to discharging patients. An example of this was insisting on unrealistic levels of support, such as five-to-one care.
He added: “Of course, that’s setting the thing up to fail, isn’t it?”
Neary said there is “so much anecdotal evidence” that people need only “decent human beings” to thrive.
He said his son is now thriving living in his own home with support.
Missed targets for patients in long-stay hospitals
The UK government has several times committed to reducing the number of patients in long-stay hospitals, but has consistently missed its targets.
At the end of March, 2,035 people were in ATUs.
The Government aims to cut this to about 1,440 by 2023/24.
Care minister Helen Whately told the HSCC she, too, favours better care in the community.
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Published: 9 May 2021
