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A significant factor in the continuation of ATU's is the othering of learning disabled people; that (sometimes unconscious) attitude that those with learning disabilities are somehow less human than the rest of us, so subhuman conditions don't matter as much (1)
This is perpetuated by the difficulty many learning disabled and/or autistic people have with their primary form of communication being behaviour instead of spoken words to articulate their experience, allowing this infrahumanisation to continue (2)
Alexis Quinn, mother, teacher, autistic woman and survivor of ATU's is able to describe her experience clearly and powerfully and in doing so exposes the all powerful cruelty and abuse of so called treatment for autistic people https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/autistic-activist-tells-mps-of-brutal-aggressive-sink-or-swim-support-system/?fbclid=IwAR0q1jn5ruznTKuGTysbzOBPB1B-yiV3FtteX-wCIgoXBn4QurRBsTMTzEk (3)
“I reflect on closed doors, being hundreds of miles away from home, worried when the next sensory overload would come, triggered by a chaotic, sensory-charged environment that I had no choice to be in.
(4)
(4)
"I was constantly worried because I was just waiting for the next overload to come.
“It was always met with six to 10 men pinning me to the floor, pulling my pants down and injecting me with sedatives and then secluding me.
(5)
“It was always met with six to 10 men pinning me to the floor, pulling my pants down and injecting me with sedatives and then secluding me.
(5)
Ms Quinn is describing a re-education program, where punishments, remarkably akin in experience to sexual violence, are meted out for the crime of being autistic and funded, at astronomical cost, by us all as taxpayers, for organisations to profit from (6)
It's been almost a decade since the exposure of abuse in Winterbourne View. A decade of endless reviews, claims of lessons learnt and no real change. Learning disabled and autistic people are still being tortured by a system which demands compliance as the price of freedom (7)
The numbers of people forced to endure ATU's remain remarkably consistent as those in charge change faces but not their words or false promises. If you take an average cost of £5000 per person, per week, for just one person, the taxpayer spends over £250,000 per year (8)
At least a quarter of a million pounds a year, per person. For 3000 people, just over one year that's £780,000,000. Seven hundred and eighty million quid. At least. And over a decade? £7,800,000,000. That number is so big I can't translate it into words (9)
The only possible conclusion from these astronomical sums of money, these terrible abuses of human rights, is that the continuation of this practice is a choice. A choice made by those in power, those who profit from it, those of us who fund it. We choose to pay for abuse (10)
If that seems a harsh accusation, then remember those scenes of learning disabled people being waterboarded by 'carers', those autistic people, some still children, locked in seclusion cells, fed through hatches that we pay £780,000,000 p.a for. And tell me, what else is it? (11)
Because, with £780,000,000 a year, you can choose to make better choices. 3 or even 4 to 1 care if that's deemed necessary. Psychiatrists & specialist nursing staff to provide bespoke care in the home environment. Purchasing suitable homes away from people's sensory triggers (12)
We could so easily choose better. But, still we keep choosing not to. As our Prime Minister might so graciously describe it, instead we choose to 'spaff it up a wall'. When we see that same wall in other counties, we call it for what it is. Torture. Genocide. Reeducation. (13)
This year, most of us have had our first experience of having our liberty curtailed. We've all felt the pressure of four walls seeming to close in, how irritable we can become, how desperately we can crave touch. We know we've been irritable, even behaved in ways we regret (14)
But we also know, we are living in an unnatural environment, deprived of the sensory experiences which keep us whole, keep us sane. Now, imagine those 4 walls are bare; no comforting fabrics, no distraction of Netflix, no ability to make the small choices we took forgranted (15)
Then, try to imagine how you'd feel in that soulless environment if someone started using a drill right next to you. Or a dripping tap, fingernails down a blackboard. Never ending.
How long would it take you to crack, to lash out, to behave in uncharacteristic ways? (16)
How long would it take you to crack, to lash out, to behave in uncharacteristic ways? (16)
That is but a small, neurotypical insight into what the ATU system must feel like for learning disabled and autistic people. And then the system punishes those people for lashing out, or harming themselves by giving them more of the same.
And we all pay millions for it (17)
And we all pay millions for it (17)
We pay those millions and billions for something that in another country, in a slightly different context, we recognise to be torture and reeducation and rightfully condemn. For something we none of us could endure ourselves without developing challenging behaviour (18)
If nothing else, this year has taught us about the importance of choices and environment. That our environment profoundly affects our feelings and behaviour. That being deprived of choices is a horrible experience we can all relate to now on a more personal level (19)
But it's also shown us, that when it is important enough, necessary enough, those choices can be made, and funded rapidly.
Because at heart, they are just choices. (20)
Because at heart, they are just choices. (20)
Over the years I have spoken to many politicians, from different political parties, about the horrors of the ATU system. I've heard many different excuses for why things don't change, and some for why things shouldn't change.
They are all excuses. All poor choices (21)
They are all excuses. All poor choices (21)
There is a really obvious choice staring us all in the face. Choose to use that astronomical budget differently. Choose to close down ATU's. Choose to adequately fund community based care. Choose to recognise environment as crucial to wellbeing. (22)
