Author Archives: wendy
Easy News: an extract on the Winterbourne View abuse scandal
A newspaper by and for people with learning disabilities
Care home abuse exposed
In 2011 the BBC showed a programme called Panorama which upset a lot of people.
It showed people with learning disabilities being abused by care workers in a private hospital.
The hospital was called Winterbourne View. After the programme, it was investigated by the police.
In 2012, 11 care workers were put on trial to decide if they were guilty of crimes.
Six care workers have now gone to jail.
Five others have been given suspended sentences. This means they do not go to prison unless they get into trouble again.
The Judge said that if the BBC had not shown the abuse, the staff would have carried on being cruel.
Sundance: Vancouver filmmaker bravely, honestly documents life with multiple sclerosis
Jason DaSilva’s When I Walk makes its debut this week at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Jason DaSilva’s When I Walk makes its debut this week at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
PARK CITY, UTAH — Jason DaSilva always wanted to come back to the Sundance Film Festival, but he never thought he’d do it in a wheelchair.
A graduate of Vancouver’s Emily Carr University and a veteran director of short films, including Olivia’s Puzzle, which was invited to Sundance in 2003, DaSilva’s life took a turn for the tragic when he was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis in 2006.
“I was on holiday with my family and I couldn’t get up.”
We actually see this moment in the sand in his film, When I Walk, which will screen at Sundance as part of the documentary premieres section.
At the time, DaSilva was a 25-year-old man in the prime of his life. He had a string of pretty girlfriends, a promising career in movies and a cool apartment in Vancouver’s West Village.
But everything in his life changed. Very quickly.
