Category Archives: disability
Disability is multi-dimensional, so a joined-up response is needed
Disabled people and their carers are looking for allies in their struggle for survival and quality of life
With many hundreds of delegates from all over the planet, the Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development is a wonderful forum for raising one of the most important human rights issues of our time: disability. When I first started participating in the disability movement more than 20 years ago, jokes about social workers were popular in British activist circles. Few of them could be repeated here. Social work has changed since then, but I suspect there still remains some of that underlying anger of people with disabilities against the professionals whom they perceive to be unresponsive and controlling.
The UK is one of 117 nations to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A further 36 have signed it. Most of the articles of this human rights and development treaty have some relevance to social work: the right to live independently and be included in the community; freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse; respect for home and family; adequate standards of living and social protection. But even more importantly, the whole convention reflects the principles of equality, diversity, non-discrimination and respect which should be at the heart of social work practice.
Convicted carer locks disabled man in back of van so he can go to the toilet
Jul 22 2012 By Norman Silvester, Sunday Mail
A SERIOUSLY disabled man was left trapped and helpless in the back of a locked van by his carer and had to be rescued by two passing policemen.
William Yates’s shocked family later learned that cruel John Hart had landed the job despite two convictions for assault.
Hart, 29, pushed terrified William into the footwell of the van, then pulled the front passenger seat over his head.
It meant 58-year-old William was unable to escape or open the vehicle from inside.
Decision on social care funding in England facing delay
The government is to agree in principle to cap the amount elderly and disabled people in England pay towards the cost of social care, when it publishes plans on the issue next week.
But there will be no final agreement on how to fund the changes, and a decision will not be made until the spending review expected late next year.
Labour said talks to try to secure a cross-party consensus had broken down.
The health secretary said ministers were committed to continuing talks.
Last July, a review chaired by economist Andrew Dilnot put forward a raft of ideas for changes to adult social care funding in England.
The most notable of these was a £35,000 cap on what people should pay before they get help from the state.
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